RWBY: Building a Bumblebee
by Fl00r
Summary: No longer distracted by battles with the White Fang and the Grimm, Yang is forced to face the problems she's felt in her heart ever since joining Beacon - being in love with Blake. Trying to comprehend and strategize her emotions would be difficult enough without her love being as mysterious and hard to read as Blake. The two have to overcome many obstacles to build a 'Bumblebee'
1. Chapter 1 - From the Burning Side

**Note: Hello fellow humans! This is the first time I've tried doing something like this! I've enjoyed writing my own original stuff before, but never anything from someone else's lore. I'll also apologize right now for any inaccuracies to RWBY. I love the show, but I doubt I'll get every detail correctly. Also I'd like to note the rating is mainly so I can have the freedom to curse has brutally as I want to - some of the stuff in here is a reflection my own thoughts and I'd like to keep them uncensored. But enough of this I say! Hope you enjoy!**

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Yang:

'If there was one thing good about the White Fang and the grimm, it's that they can always keep my mind busy. In between fighting the creatures of darkness and radical faunuses, I never had any time for my mind to wander where I wished it wouldn't go. Fixing my problems by having larger, more immediate problems isn't the best way to live though. I mean, I'm of course happy we managed to defend Vale from the grimm and put Roman Torchwick behind bars, but with our lives back to normal, I have to once again acknowledge my messed up mind.

I always hate to think about it. I'll have dreams about it and I'll always scold myself in the mornings. It's sad to say I probably haven't had a decent night of sleep since we stopped the grimm. My problem could be much worse, I could be a psychopath or something...then again if I only sleep well when horrible monsters are roaming freely I may actually be a psychopath. I suppose there's no dodging it, all my thoughts always gravitate back to a single fact- a single feeling I've tortured myself ever since our early days attending Beacon...I really like Blake. I mean I like her as more of a friend. I don't dare say I love her, even if I may in my heart. Letting this feeling grow to that size would be an even worse cancer than it already is for my emotions.

I'm not afraid to go 'that' way; hell, I don't give two shits about what other people think about my sexual orientation. I've never had a boyfriend and have accepted who I am. Everyone probably already knows anyways since Ruby found those magazines… But anyways, my problem is that the beauty I've fallen for is Blake. Anyone else I could probably get myself to tell my feelings for. I'd tell Pyrrha, Nora, hell, I'd even tell Weiss. But Blake...the way she's so distant... If I hadn't been her teammate for so long, I'd argue she had no emotions and probably wouldn't see anything in her, but I am her teammate and I see in small bits just how much emotion she has. She acts so painfully lonely at times as she drains herself into her books or when she slumps, deathly still, in our classes.

The way she always looks; she's so mysterious and so hidden. Is it wrong for me to love er- really like someone based purely on what I don't know about them? I suppose it doesn't matter if it's wrong or not; it's how I feel either way. These thoughts feel like a knife in my gut as I think of ways to open up to her. I want to help her feel wanted, needed, like she was a part of this world and not just a faunus hiding among a sea of judgement. I never can though, and I never do. Instead, I've ignored my desire to my help my teammate in favor of focusing on fighting the grimm or just generally messing around. The closest I ever came was when she was going crazy over figuring out what the White Fang was up to several weeks ago. I helped her focus on the rest of her life and even danced with her at the dance, but I still couldn't grow some courage and offer her more.

Will I ever open up to her? Even if I did, how would I and how would she respond? Do I want her to respond well? Do I really want to be with her?

...Man, I've got to quit ranting like this in my head. It cannot be healthy staying up all night like this.'

Yang sat up in bed to check the clock. '3:08,' Yang thought,' Well, I guess I wasn't going to pay attention in class anyways. I'm sure staying up thinking about Blake and my own insanity is a reasonable excuse to sleep all class.'

Yang laid back down and tried to close her eyes. The challenge of sleep wasn't going to be conquered so easily though. Now that Yang had escaped her infinite train of thought, her senses were locked onto her surroundings. She immediately picked up on the sound of Blake's breaths from the bunk above her and against her will, her own breaths began to sync to it. This brought even more attention to Blake's presence as Yang specifically listened for Blake's breaths so she could force herself to breathe at a different time. As she heard Blake shifting her position in her bunk, making a slight groan, Yang used all of her willpower not to adjust her own position in her bed as well.

'Yang. What. The. Fuck,' Yang thought. She couldn't believe how ridiculous she was acting.

Yang hadn't felt her eyes close again that entire time, but quickly enough she heard a blaring whistle to her side.

"Good morning, team RWBY!" Ruby yelled," Class is starting in five minutes, so we should probably get ready!" Weiss and Blake quickly got out of bed and started getting prepared for a day of classes. Yang just laid there for another minute or two thinking, 'I spent the whole night thinking about her...again.'

Team RWBY was sprinting through the halls to get to their first class on time. Team JNPR wasn't doing as well, they were sluggishly jogging to their class right behind them.

"Ha, well at least we won't be as late as they'll be! They must've had a rough night!"' Ruby joked as she sped up.

"They probably still had more sleep than me," Yang said sleepily and then immediately snapped awake wanted to clamp her mouth shut and uppercut herself in the face.

"Why's that, Yang?" Ruby laughed," You weren't up looking at those magazines again, were you? You really shouldn't on nights we have class in the morn-"

"I was not!" Yang's crimson face seemed to argue the opposite, "I was…" 'God damn it,' Yang thought, 'Quick what's something normal people stay up all night for?' Yang realized she was getting cornered.

"You were what?" Blake asked. She wasn't joking like Ruby was; she still had her normal, dull voice only with a hint of curiosity added. 'Thinking of you!' Yang wanted to yell, but thankfully didn't.

"I was taking a step in Weiss's boring shoes and studying?" Yang answered, a little loudly. Yang cursed herself for not using a normal voice. The group took a moment to judge as Yang painfully waited for their response.

"I never study _all _night," Weiss eventually snapped defensively, "and I'm not _boring_!"

Ruby giggled, "Well I think studying defeats the point when it costs you your sleep. As leader, I command you to start having better nights of sleep. Okay, Yang?" 'Oh you don't want to know what I'd give for that, Ruby' Yang thought. Yang nodded anyways and offered a grand smile, "You bet."

Yang noted Blake's silence. This was usually the part when she'd state her opinion on how ridiculous the team was acting, but instead she just kept running without another word.

As Weiss continued grumbling about how interesting she was, the team arrived at their class and stormed through the door as the bell rang. Professor Port promptly started his _epic_ story as team RWBY took their seats.

Yang immediately started replaying the whole event in her head, keeping the tally of hesitations and the percentage of her face that was blushing. Yang determined the chance of Blake noticing her feelings were minimal. Worst case scenario, Blake simply thought she was looking through those magazines again. Yang sat back in her chair as she began to relax.

'Well done, Yang. She still doesn't know!' Yang thought to herself cheerfully, proud of her accomplishment.

Almost immediately she realized what she just said and hated herself again.

'Well done, Yang. She _still_ doesn't know.' Yang buried her head in her hands as whole world seemed to melt away around her.

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**Note: So I thought I set this all up well enough. Reviews are welcome, please tell me how crappy I am, that's how I'll improve. **

***Update 5-6-16: I apologize for the rather rough introduction. A solid sense of direction is established soon enough in this story, so I hope you'll give it a proper chance.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Questions to be Answered

**Note: So I think I have a better direction as to where this story is headed. And this chapter is even a big longer, so yay! Nothing else to address really, so hope you enjoy!**

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Yang:

Between thinking about Blake and merely trying to stay awake, Yang found it impossible to focus on Professor Port's lecture. Granted, his lectures were never important and nothing he actually said would be on the tests, but Yang knew full well she could get called out and asked an extensive question on the spot if she didn't pay attention. Yang realized quickly that the powerful grip of exhaustion wasn't going to yield. Yang felt her eye growing heavier by the second; she tried blinking rapidly, but it only seemed to make them heavier.

'Where the hell was this exhaustion last night?' Yang wanted to yell to herself. She was starting to hate her subconscious mind more than the Grimm or than that idiot, Cardin.

Defeat was eminent as all of her will was being sapped from her muscles. Her head was locked onto a collision course with the desk and all she could helplessly do about it was ease the impact with her hands. Resistance was no longer an option; Yang's mind faded black as all the sound in the room diminished.

'Well you're asleep now, Yang. You may as well never wake back up since we're screwed if you do,' Yang thought in her sleep, 'May as well just go into a coma now; it'll be far less horrible than having Port yell me.'

"Yang! Thank you for volunteering! What is the answer?"

Yang's subconscious immediately released any hold it once had just in time for Yang to face this threat all alone. Yang jolted her head up and gave a ridiculous smile pretending she was simply hunched over taking notes.

'Well this doesn't look like a coma,' Yang thought furiously, 'Seems as if my mind has fucked me again.'

"Uh...what was the question, sir?" Yang muttered, clearly straining herself to keep up her smile...

"What's that? You'll have to speak up, little lady! What did you say?" Port yelled, knowing full well what Yang was likely saying. 'He can never make this easy can he?' Yang thought.

Yang opened her mouth to ask the same stupid question, but before the embarrassment could commence, Blake blurted out, "Decapitation." Everyone's eyes shifted to Blake.

'Jeez, I may be stupid but that's a radical punishment!' Yang thought.

"What?" Professor Port asked, confused.

"You asked what the quickest way to kill an ursa with a melee weapon was," Blake replied, still deathly calm. She didn't even seem aware of everyone's attention on her, "Yang responded 'decapitation'...You didn't hear her so I repeated it."

Port scratched his head, clearly not anticipating Yang would actually offer an answer, and rightfully thinking so, "Well yes, that would be a simple way to defeat an ursa...well done, Yang...Anyways! So there I was, surrounded by dozens of ursas with my foot caught in a bear trap and my weapon on the ground, too far away to reach. I obviously thought to -" Port immediately continued his story without a second thought.

Yang just stared at Blake in awe at Blake several seats in front of her. She thought Blake would turn around to give her a 'you're welcome' or a 'you're an idiot' look, but Blake's head didn't budge.

Yang glanced at Ruby who was sitting to her side. Ruby simply smiled and shrugged.

Yang leaned back in her chair and continued to pretend to pay attention. At least she was wide awake now as the situation began rapidly replaying in her head.

'Blake helped me back there...does she know?' Yang thought frantically,' No she couldn't...even if she did, that wouldn't explain why she randomly helped me out right there. Did she take pity on me? Oh my god, maybe she does know and she's just setting everything up so she can let me down easy. She's so kind, I can't believe she'd do that for me...But then, how did she find out...there's no way. No, she couldn't possibly know I like her. Why did she help me then? Am I thinking too much into this?'

In the middle of Yang's rollercoaster of ideas, the bell blared. She snapped back to reality as she saw everyone flooding out of their seats and out of the classroom. Yang kept her eyes on Blake as she walked past. Blake didn't look back once. Confused, Yang packed up her belongings and followed the class out as Port yelled his previews for his next adventure.

"You should've seen the look on your face, Yang," Ruby laughed. Team RWBY was all seated around their lunch table. "You give yourself too much credit for your smoothness."

Yang shook her head as she swallowed a bite of her sandwich, "Hey, it all worked out. I think Professor Port was far more embarrassed than I was when Blake swooped in. Thanks, again" Yang said to Blake, offering a grand smile.

Blake nodded, clearly not taking much interest in the conversation as she munched on a tuna sandwich.

'If she doesn't give a shit about helping me, then why the hell did she?' Yang thought, frustrated, 'Why do I lov- err like this girl so much if she won't even be consistent in her mystery? Weiss scowled, "I almost wish Blake hadn't stepped into to save you. You deserved embarrassment after using your educational efforts as an excuse to stay up late! You need to take Professor Port's class more seriously!"

"All right, all right," Yang cut it, "I agree. His class is very im_**port**_ant." Yang laughed at her own joke and managed to get a chuckle out of Ruby. Weiss covered her face with her hand, poorly attempting to hide her look of disapproval. Yang glanced at Blake; she saw that Blake's eyes were forcefully squinted. Yang raised an eyebrow to that.

'Either my joke is causing her physical pain, which is possible I suppose, or she's trying not to laugh at it,' Yang pondered, 'The mystery thickens.'

"Well regardless of the importance of education, you really need to get your sleeping in order, Yang," Ruby stated, "You won't be a very strong huntress if you fall asleep throughout the day, and you've acted sleepy ever since we caught Torchwick several weeks ago. Are you sure that you're doing okay?"

Yang noticed her teammates were all looking at her, awaiting a response as she chewed another bite of her sandwich. Ruby had a look of concern, Weiss was still clearly annoyed, and Blake was still impossible to tell.

Yang swallowed another bite and laughed. "I'm fine, guys, honestly! I'll do my best to improve; I'm going to start getting better sleep," Yang promised, knowing full well what that would entitle.

The group seemed satisfied with the answer and returned to eating their lunch. Yang hastily retreated into her mind as kept eating her sandwich.

'I'm not going to get back to normal unless I can either get over Blake or I open up to Blake. Until that moment, I'm not going the sleep or act normal unless a greater threat comes along to distract me,' Yang thought, 'I'm fine if she doesn't like me back; I just need her to know.' The thought of Blake not returning the same feelings was less than encouraging, so Yang then considered the other option, 'If I can get concrete evidence she's not into girls, then that should satisfy my subconscious that there's no chance. Then I can move on with my life and never acknowledge these feelings again.'

The rest of the day was a blur to Yang as she tried to figure out a plan as to get confirmation of Blake's sexual orientation. She quickly realized a risk in her goal as she thought of different outcomes.

'What if I found out she IS into girls?' Yang thought. If that were to be the case, then her agonizing feelings for Blake would strengthen without a doubt. Then Yang wouldn't sleep ever again and probably would never quit day dreaming. Perhaps taking no action at all would be a better choice? Perhaps Yang could get herself over Blake without ever fully knowing if there was a chance or not. 'No,' Yang decided, 'one way or another, if I want this torture to end, then I'm going to have to figure Blake out... and god knows how fun that'll be.'

With her goal set in stone, Yang now only had one more issue to address, 'How will I manage to ask Blake about her sexuality without hinting that I'm interested?' Yang wanted to yell with anger, but couldn't as she was still in her final class of the day.

'If I want to keep suspicion off of me, then I'll need someone else to raise the question of what gender she likes. But who would have reason to? I could ask Ruby or Weiss to ask for me, but that would simply raise just as many questions from them and Blake as if I just asked Blake myself. 'As Yang sat with her mind floating around the idea, she finally snagged an answer. It seemed too perfect, too simple at first, but the more she though into it, the more Yang realized how flawless the plan would be.

The final bell of the day finally rang after eons of wading in anticipation. Yang walked out of class and now, free to take action, she took out her scroll and scanned through her contact list. Eventually she found her way down to who she needed. She clicked their name and anxiously listened to the beeps of the call going through. They finally picked up.

"Hello? What's up?"

Yang grin reached ear to ear, "Hey, Sun. I have an offer for you."

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**Note: Oh the cliff hangers. I'll get the next chapter out soon enough since it's clear what's happening next. You are free to review, it's the internet after all! Hope you enjoyed!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Setting Up

**Thank you all for your support! Encouragement really goes a long a way for me and it means a lot :). It's great to hear you're enjoying the story. I'll try to work hard in return by making better, longer chapters like this one. This one is probably longer than in needs to be for what it accomplishes, but I like to take my time. Enjoy a longer chapter. :)**

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Yang:

All the answers Yang needed would be solved if she could pull off this conversation. Calling Sun and instructing him to ask out Blake seemed really random, but she knew she could convince him to. The entire male brain revolves around women: especially when foolish a guy like Sun and a beautiful woman like Blake are involved.

"You like Blake, right?" Yang had said over the phone.

"Well, yeah. She's pretty cool and stuff," Sun replied, still expressing doubt.

"Then come on! I'm really getting worried about her. She hasn't been doing anything fun lately and I think you're the perfect candidate to cheer her up!"

"Why do you think me?" Sun asked, "I've received the impression quite often that I'm just an annoyance."

"You think so? Because whenever she does talk about you, it's in very positive light. In fact I'd dare theorize she's so depressed because she hasn't seen you in a while."

"Wha – really?" Sun said, now far more excited," I guess I'll give it a shot then. I haven't talked to her in a few weeks anyways, so I guess it'd be cool to catch up." His rush of excitement then quickly wavered. "I'm not taking her to anywhere fancy though. It was bad enough dressing up for the dance that one time and I don't think I can manage that again for this year…or decade."

Her plan was going perfectly. Now it was time for what she really needed.

"So get out there, champ!" Yang encouraged, "Make sure Blake's into guys and then sweep her off to happiness!"

Sun stayed silent to that, not quite knowing where it came from. Yang could almost hear the momentum of the conversation grinding to a halt. 'Fuck, no, we're so close!' Yang thought.

"Why would I need to ensure that? Why'd she not…" Sun mumbled.

"Hey!" Yang snapped, "It's the twenty-first century, you'd do well to keep in mind the possibility of people living outside of social norms is high. You owe respect and acknowledgement to all orientations! Besides, girls love guys who are sensitive to the pain of others." Yang commended herself on her ability to spout believable shit at a moment's notice. 'Take the bait you stupid monkey…' Yang thought.

Yang waited as the slow gears of Sun's mind processed the idea. He finally replied, "Yeah, I guess it couldn't hurt to bring up the topic…I still don't…"

"Quick!" Yang yelled, frantic to keep this plan alive, "You better go ahead and call her up; if you wait too long she'll just go home, start reading, and be depressed! Only you can prevent that, Sun. Be the sun in her life that she needs to light up her darkness!"

Once Yang had calmed down, she glanced down at her scroll. The call had ended. Sun had either been scared off or he was super hyped and racing to ask out Blake right then and there. Yang really hoped for the latter; she needed an agent to find out where Blake laid on the spectrum. If this failed, her back up plans consisted of finding another idiot to ask out Blake or to ask Blake's orientation herself. Without knowing what would happen, Yang picked up her stuff and raced back to the dorms.

Several minutes later, Yang walked into her team's room. She immediately scanned the room to figure out what was happening. She saw Ruby was polishing Crescent Rose and attempting to talk to Weiss, and Weiss was trying to block out Ruby and focus on studying. Yang turned to other side of the room where she saw Blake who was on her bed reading.

'Uh oh,' Yang thought, 'she's still here and she isn't getting ready to go anywhere it seems. I swear, if Sun chickened out on me…' Right as Yang considered horrible ways to take revenge on the cowardly faunus, Blake's scroll rang – playing its default noise. Blake sighed as she was forced to close the pages of her book and set it aside. She opened her scroll and reluctantly said, "Hello?"

'There is hope yet,' Yang squealed to herself. She suddenly realized she was just standing in the doorway watching Blake, so she quickly shut the door behind her, threw her belongings onto the floor, and plopped down next to Ruby and Weiss. Yang desperately wanted to listen to Blake's conversation, but she knew she also had to avoid suspicion.

"So," Yang started, "how did your day go, Weiss?"

"Oh god, not you too," Weiss sighed, "You two may have forgotten, but we have a test in Oobleck's class tomorrow. I'd like to study up so I can actually remember what events like the Grimm Massacre were all about."

"The Grimm Massacre? Wasn't that when some Grimm attacked and the hunters and huntresses dramatically stopped them?" Ruby said, feeling proud she'd remembered that fact from class.

Weiss groaned, "Good luck writing an essay off of that! That sounds like just about every other event in our history!"

"You could ramble for a while about how cool the hunters are and then state tons a vague facts that are technically true," Yang suggested, while still glancing back to see if Blake was still in her call.

Ruby grinned, "Yeah, I could spend a whole paragraph just discussing how this event is really important purely because we're talking about it now! It's a flawless plan!" Ruby leaned back, clearly satisfied with her plan.

Weiss scoffed at the strategy, "God forbid you use any references to when the Massacre happened or who was involved. But, if you think that'll work, that's your problem." Weiss turned back to her textbook on the table, clearly indicating she was done with the pointless conversation.

Ruby stood, deciding to let Weiss take the victory on this one, and leapt onto her bed. Yang looked back at Blake, feeling proud of herself for not eavesdropping on her. Blake was now off of her scroll. 'Wait,' Yang thought as she noticed Blake was going back to her book. 'She's not getting ready or anything? Was that call not Sun? Or maybe it was Sun and she turned him down? Fuck, make this easier for me, Blake! I need to get my mind back!'

Yang considered her remaining options. 'I could get someone else to ask out Blake, maybe Neptune? Wait, no. I'm still not certain if that was Sun or not, or if she declined him or not, or if Sun is ever going to call or not. Gah, how the hell do I find out then?'

Right before Yang's mind could black out and speed away to race for a complicated solution, she slammed the brakes.

'Wait, I'm still her normal teammate! I can just make conversation and ask who was calling!...I just have to make sure not to pry too hard or imply I had anything to do with Sun calling.' Yang took a deep breath and walked over to Blake.

"Hey Blake, how was your day?" Yang smiled, hoping desperately Blake would smile back and open up for once. Blake sighed, clearly disappointed she had to put her book down again. Yang felt bad about interrupting her, but at the moment, Yang was more concerned with restoring balance to her mind.

"It was fine," Blake said half-heartedly. She clearly didn't want to talk right now, but Yang couldn't afford delays. She didn't believe her heart was going to accept being ignored much longer. Yang decided there was also no postponing the question with idle talk.

"So, who was calling you on your scroll? You almost never get any calls," Yang asked. Ruby and even Weiss turned around to face Blake as they were wondering the same as Yang. 'Ah ha!' Yang thought, excitedly, "They're curious too! I've finally got some allies!"

Blake lowered her eyebrows, clearly not accepting of the question. "No one," Blake answered, "It was just an advertisement. I really wish the blocker on my scroll would update." Yang blinked in disbelief. 'Shit! It wasn't Sun! 'Yang thought angrily in her head. 'Am I going to have to go punch that boy's brains out? Can't he grow a pair and just-'

"What the heck are you talking about?" Weiss said. They all turned back to her; Weiss was the last person Yang had expected to object to Blake's statement.

Yang looked back and could tell Blake's breaths had become much faster. Her chest was expanding and contracting far more rapidly. Yang could tell as paid close attention to the region.

"I don't know," Blake replied, "What are you talking about?"

Weiss stood up and shook her head. "Scrolls automatically update everything the moment you're in Wi-Fi range whether you want it to or not," Weiss argued, "And even if it was outdated, messages don't set off your ringtone if they're not on your contact list."

And there was Weiss, gracefully saving Yang's day. Her ringtone had gone off earlier meaning whoever called, Blake knew. Blake was lying…which likely meant…

"Who called you then, Blake?" Ruby giggled, "And don't lie this time! We've got ourselves a lawyer!" Weiss's smile became even fuller of herself with that. Yang didn't care though, they had Blake cornered for investigation now.

Blake, clearly displeased, reluctantly responded, "It was Sun."

'Looks like I gave up hope in that faunus too early.' Yang thought in her mind

As due process went, Weiss then asked, "What was he calling about?"

Blake simply replied, "Nothing." Weiss's expression clearly showed that wasn't a pleasing answer.

Ruby jumped off her bed and walked over to Blake. "Oh, come on, Blake!" Ruby argued," We barely talk these days; we're just curious about what's going on in your life!"

"Yeah," Yang added, "It's got to be more interesting than Weiss's life."

Weiss ignored the tease and repeated herself, "So Blake, what was Sun calling about?"

Blake, still without displaying emotion, finally answered, "He wanted to ask me out to dinner this evening. He thought it would be cool to and hang out since we haven't in a while, or ever actually." Blake sighed as she knew what was coming next.

"Oh, are you going to then? Are you going to dress up for him?" Ruby asked, excitedly.

"No," Blake quickly replied, "I would much prefer to stay here and read my book."

'Wait, what?' Yang panicked in her head, 'No, you can't…you have to go…I…the answers….fuck!' Before Yang's hysteria could properly set in, Weiss continued her interrogation.

"Is that what you told him?" Weiss asked, "I would've hoped our teammate was more polite than that."

Blake's head arced towards the floor, "No," she replied again, "I told him I'd think about it."

'Ah, there's hope!' Yang realized,' I just have to convince her to go, and from the looks of it, Ruby and Weiss will back me up!'

"Why don't you go with him? It sounds like fun, and Sun's a nice guy," Yang suggested.

"Not to mention," Ruby added," I don't see anyone else throwing themselves at you."

'Oh good! I'm doing a good job hiding myself then,' Yang thought, pleased with herself.

Blake, clearly not approving the idea presented, said, "Guys, I just really don't feel like going out with him. I don't think he's my type."

"Blake," Weiss said, scoffing again, "I don't think you actually have a type considering you haven't gone out with anyone our entire time here at Beacon. Just go out with Sun this one time; you've got nothing to lose. Give it a shot"

'I'm not even contributing much to the argument,' Yang thought in awe, 'Once I get my sanity back, I'll have to make sure to thank Weiss for this. She's really saving my butt right now.'

Blake's expression told she still wanted to argue the case. Her mouth opened, but she slowly shut it again as no words managed to come out. She had an argument loaded, but decided to hold it back. Blake shook her head and finally muttered, "Fine."

"Yay! Blake's going on a date!" Ruby cheered as she danced around the room. Weiss grinned with her victory.

Yang turned back to Blake, expecting to find her blushing or expressing some form of emotion, but she was still locked on a poker face. Yang couldn't wait to learn what thoughts were hiding behind that cold gaze.

Blake pulled out her scroll and called Sun back. Yang's plan was still going perfectly despite the giant wall that stood in the wall, being Blake. As Yang laid down on her bed, she couldn't help but wonder why Blake was so resistant to going out with Sun. 'She could just not like Sun,' Yang thought. 'He is kind of obnoxious. Or perhaps she doesn't want to out with Sun because he's a guy… ' Yang's heart fluttered. She scolded herself and proceeded to beat those feelings down with a rake immediately.

'I should at least try to keep a level head until I get a concrete answer.' Yang still didn't know which answer she wanted, though. If Blake was straight then Yang could try to move on with her life and get some sleep which sounded awesome, but Yang wasn't quite sure how she felt about the other option. If Blake was into girls too then Yang's mind would without a doubt proceed to shut down all normal functions. The thought of having a shot with Blake was more than appealing, but then again the thought of actually approaching and asking her out nearly killed all of that appeal.

Blake hung up her scroll. "We're going into Vale for food at six," Blake said, sounding defeated. "I hope you all are happy with yourselves."

Weiss had returned to her studying, but still looked back to Blake just to offer a giant, taunting smile.

"Hey Yang, you're going to go to sleep early tonight, so you better start your homework now," Ruby stated, as if she was Yang's older sister.

Yang grinned. In comparison to the ordeal she went through to set up Blake's date, homework sounded like a soothing change. Yang could call Sun later tonight after their date and find out what Blake's deal was. All of her cards were in play. All Yang could do now was wait.

"Yes, ma'am!" Yang responded, with a grin. "Sounds like a plan to me!"

Yang lunged off her bed, grabbed her binders, and casually took a seat next to Weiss.

With her grin still wide, Yang asked, "So, what'd you get for questions four through thirty?"

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**Oh no, what will happen next time? I sort of know, but who really knows for sure? NO ONE! THE ANTICIPATION THOUGH! He he, anyways hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Revelations

**Man does life suck sometimes. I could've finished this chapter a while ago, but that whole 'life' thing really gets in the way. Anyways, you all seem pretty happy about longer chapters so I decided to just keep on writing until the better point to split the chapters up. I hope you all enjoy and thanks a bunch for all of your support. I hope I can deliver what you think I'm capable of :)**

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Yang:

"I just told you! The answer is a Nevermore! Now leave me alone!" Weiss yelled.

It had been hours now and Yang was still working on all of her homework. She probably could've been done much sooner if she wasn't taking ten minutes to beg Weiss for the answer to every question.

"Don't lie to me!" Yang yelled back. "We're on math now! The function of 10x doesn't equal 'Nevermore' when y is five!"

"Too bad, that's all the help you're getting anymore!" Weiss replied. "I'm done with my work and I need a break from this room and especially you!"

"No wait, Weiss!" Yang cried desperately, but it was too late. Weiss stormed out of the room, likely to meet up with Ruby who had already met up with team JNPR. They were likely off having fun while Yang was stuck doing all the work that she should've done while day dreaming about Blake in class. Yang didn't really need Weiss's help on all of the problems; she just needed contact with another person to keep her thoughts grounded on reality. Begging for answers was a quickly found last resort since Weiss isn't much for small talk, especially when she's working.

Yang raced through the rest of her math problems with fast-paced, party music playing off of her scroll. If things got too slow or quiet, Yang's mind would find its way to thinking about Blake. 'Specifically her wispy, black hair,' Yang swooned.' her golden, glistening eyes, and that smile that may be as rare to see as an eclipse but is still worth every beautiful second of seeing it. And don't even get me started on her giant-' The beat suddenly dropped in the music playing, returning her from her short vacation.

Yang sighed; she glanced at the clock which read '6:01'. 'Her and Sun must've met up by now. I hope…Oh my god, I don't even know what to hope for anymore,' Yang thought. At this point, she really just wanted to get some sleep so she could avoid any thinking what so ever. That's what she thought anyways. In reality, sleep merely took away her direct influence over her thoughts. Sleep was the realm of dreams: the realm of hidden desires.

Deciding to ignore the final pages in the history reading to leave them for later, Yang closed her binder and walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. It was still pretty early, but Yang decided it was for the best since she saw in her reflection that she had dark rings around her eyes. Yang used the bathroom, brushed her teeth real quick and got ready for sleep. As she undressed to change into her pajamas, she couldn't help but check herself out in the mirror. She blushed ferociously as she quickly redressed herself.

'God am I fucked up,' Yang thought, 'Well, at least I know I'm good enough for Blake, not that she'd be shallow enough to only care about looks…o-or that I expect things to ever get physical…I…' Yang shut herself up before she could embarrass herself further.

'We still don't have an answer from Sun. Let's not get any hopes or assumptions for either outcome.' Yang left the bathroom and walked over to lie down; she grabbed her scroll off of the desk on the way over so she could instantly respond to any updates from Sun. She then remembered she'd probably have to call Sun for updates as he didn't know he was an agent and they were still out anyways.

'Oh well, I'll see how it went in the morning. Right now, I'm going to fucking pass out.' Yang pulled up her covers, buried her face in her pillow, and offered her consciousness to the depths of sleep. As she had hoped, Yang fell asleep quickly.

Unfortunately for Yang, the dreams set in. The serene darkness of sleep quickly dissolved away as an image appeared to Yang. It was a light, beaming far away in the darkness. Yang felt her body move closer, approaching the illumination. She saw the light quickly split into two separate strands. They were each a beautiful a shade of gold as if all the riches of the world were condensed into a concentrated ray. Closer Yang grew to the source of the light, she felt entirely entranced by its allure.

A silhouette eventually appeared, and predictably so, it was Blake. The scene was only visible by the light of her feline eyes. Yang felt herself trying to fight her way closer, but a force was now acting on her, preventing her from approaching. Blake turned at looked to Yang; she looked as calm and distant as ever. She seemed to say, 'What are you doing?' Yang struggled continued to struggle; she knew she _had_ to get to Blake. She felt as though her entire life was being held away from her.

Despairing, Yang began yelling in her dream, "Let me forward!" Blake didn't move an inch. With no response, Yang kept yelling, now with tears rolling down her cheeks, "Damn it, Blake! I want to be with you, but I don't know how to get past this! Why can't we be together?" Blake still didn't seem to understand; she merely stared back without a care in the world. "Blake!" Yang continued begging as she desperately attempted to pull herself forward. Finally, Yang couldn't contain herself anymore; her heart finally broke through her remaining mental barriers as she somehow found her courage. "I love you, Blake! I admit it! I always have!"

Immediately, Yang's body bolted forward, racing to Blake. Yang nearly tackled the faunus to the ground in her dream as Yang forcefully hugged her. Blake's straight face slowly turned to a smile; she hugged Yang back. Yang felt as though she could spend the rest of her life right here and feel like it was fulfilled. When they finally pulled apart, Yang kept her hands on Blake's hips as Blake kept her arms around Yang's neck. Yang gazed into Blake's golden eyes as they gazed right back. Yang could feel her face redden even in her own dream as her head lunged forward to kiss Blake.

Her lips never met the other pair though; all they felt was air. Yang snapped her eyes open to find herself puckered up to nothing as her arms groped for the space above her. Yang sat up her bed, feeling extremely awkward and disoriented. As she rationalized her bearings; Yang realized several things: she was sitting in her bed, she didn't actually admit her feelings to Blake, and she had actually admitted her true feelings to herself. 'Damn, emotions,' Yang thought, chuckling to herself.

Yang leaned over and saw the clock read '10:37'. She could hear snoring all around her and specifically tried to ignore the snoring right above her. 'Well, I had about four good hours of sleep. That's more than I've gotten in a long time.' Yang accepted that she had no possible hope of falling asleep now. Yang decided to level with her heart and climb aboard the thought train.

'So, it's quite clear I'm not going to be getting over Blake any time soon,' Yang thought as she leaned back onto her pillow and stared at the mattress above her. 'I'm officially hoping that she's a lesbian.' She couldn't believe she finally accepted it. It felt like a weight was finally lifted from her heart, but it also felt like a new weight was being dragged onto her mind. 'Once I hear for sure from Sun, I'm going to need a plan.' Yang tried not to consider how Blake's sexuality could still go either way.

Though, hopes weren't entirely irrational since Blake had displayed resistance to going out with Sun and she's never spoken openly about her love life…or much of her normal life for that matter. Regardless, Yang decided there was at least a possibility a relationship could flower. Assuming Blake was a lesbian, Yang planned, 'I'll just be open to her. After I check with Sun tomorrow, I'm going to go up to her and explain everything! I don't really have a choice at this point as I need to get my mind back into a manageable state. I still owe it to the team.'

Questions relentlessly swarmed Yang as the plan was decided. 'What if I never get her alone? Will I have to bring this up in front of everyone? Everyone already knows I'm lesbian right? Am I going to have to explain all of that too? What if I embarrass her? Oh fuck, what if I turn her straight by asking her out? 'As Yang continued to play out worthless scenarios in her head of the next day's confession, the stars gracefully panned across the sky. Yang didn't even notice as the room slowly illuminated from strings of light radiating through the blinds.

Yang felt startled as she heard groans and yawns around her as the other girls woke up and stretched. Her eyes darted around the room as she eventually realized she was in their room and she hadn't failed at asking out Blake…yet. As Ruby cheerfully jumped off the bunk in her light red pajamas and reached for her whistle, she noticed Yang was already wide awake, sitting up in her bed. Ruby sighed and walked across the room to her sister with her whistle raised valiantly above her head. 'Busted again,' Yang thought as she rolled her eyes.

Ruby, now before her sister, elegantly swung her arm in an arc, bringing her whistle to her lips, and unleashed a direct bursting noise to Yang's ears, much higher pitch that usual. To say Blake and Weiss freaked out would be an understatement.

"Good morning, team RWBY!" Ruby yelled, directing a playful, but clearly displeased look to Yang. Yang hardly budged as she still sat in a daze.

"I'm already awake, you idiot!" Weiss snapped, sounding ready for murder. As she stormed off to the shower with her avalanche of hair, she yelled, "Will someone _please_ get rid of that annoying noise and _then_ get rid of that whistle?"

Ruby beamed at her recognition; she then proceeded to scold Yang. "You stayed up all night again, didn't you?"

Yang slowly got out of bed and started getting prepared for class, disregarding Ruby's scolding.

"_Yang,_" Ruby continued nagging, "You're going to start failing all of your classes if you keep this going. Why can't you just sleep? Is everything really alright?"

Yang didn't mean to blatantly ignore Ruby's questions, but telling Blake the truth today was really taking priority in her mind. As Yang started assembling her scattered homework, still not responding to any questions, Ruby finally lost it.

Ruby tackled her sister to the ground. Yang's slow reaction left her dragged to the ground as Ruby landed on top of her and pinned both of her arms down.

"Yang Xiao Long, you aren't leaving this room until you explain exactly what the hell is going on! You've been acting all weird for days!" Ruby seemed dedicated to keeping that promise. Yang's, normally strong, arms felt like noodles against her sister's adrenaline fueled limbs that pinned her down at the perfect angle. After failing at squirming around and trying to kick Ruby off, Yang finally conceded; she had to explain everything to Ruby.

'No wait! You can't, you idiot!' Yang panicked, 'Blake is right here!' Blake was still across the room, getting ready for the day with no intention of helping up Yang but every intention of staying to listen to what was up. 'There's no damn way I'm asking out Blake without getting my information from Sun…or with Ruby on top of me,' Yang decided.

Yang tried on her best serious face, which was difficult, and tried to reason with her sister, "Ruby…"

"_Yes_?" Ruby asked, anxious for an explanation.

Yang sighed, "Yes, I have a problem. I'm trying to-"

"I knew it!" Ruby leapt off her sister, exhilarated that she was able to squeeze out a confession. However, she didn't let up her offensive, "What's wrong, Yang? How can we help? We're a team after all, but you have to-"

"Ruby!" Yang interrupted; she stood up and tried her best to keep her attention off of Blake who was clearly awaiting an answer just as eagerly, even if she still had her 'Blake' face on. "Listen, I'm going to try and get it worked out today," Yang said, trying to sound as confident as possible, "I'm certain I can solve it, but it's not going to work out if I tell you about it right now." Yang didn't dare look for Blake's reaction and winced in preparation for her sister to relentlessly continue her assault.

Instead, Ruby kept staring at her sister in silence. After a moment, she decided to give her sister the benefit of the doubt, "Fine, I'll give you one more day to get your act together," Ruby decided, with a still concerned smile. "You have until this afternoon to fix it on your own and no matter what you're telling me what's happening by the end of today." Ruby ran to get ready for the day, but still yelled back, "And don't think I'll let you leave this room tomorrow morning if you don't tell me!"

Yang collapsed back onto her bed as Ruby burst into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Yang could hear Weiss was less than happy about the sudden invasion. Yang then realized she was left alone with Blake who was still curiously staring at her. Yang felt her face was heating up, so she quickly got up.

'Pack up supplies, fix hair, start dancing, do _something_ to distract yourself!' Yang's mind raced. 'Ah, make conversation! No suspicious person wants to make conversation with their target!' Yang beamed as she threw her binders into her bag.

"So how was the date with Sun yesterday?" Yang asked, with a big smile – obviously hoping for it to have ended tragically in the revelation of Blake's true feelings.

Surprisingly, Blake didn't try to avoid the blunt question. She replied, "It was okay. The movie we saw was pretty cool, but certainly not as cool the_ book_." Blake clearly held resentment towards movie adaptations. 'When we go out, we will specifically not see movies based off books,' Yang decided.

"Well that's cool," Yang replied, "He took you out for food right? Did you bring any leftovers?"

Blake sighed, "We went out for seafood."

Yang nodded, "Yeah, did you bring any leftovers?"

"I ordered tuna," Blake replied.

"Yeah, so did you bring me some leftovers?" Yang replied, still grinning as she raised her voice.

"No," Blake concluded, looking guilty, "I ate every last bite."

Yang burst out laughing and Blake even started chuckling at her own mild joke. 'Oh my god,' Yang thought, still beaming, 'When she shows off her personality, I love every bit of it.'

"So, are you ever going to go out on more dates with him again if it means more free sea food?" Yang asked, fully knowing what the answer will be, but still dreading what it could be.

Blake's face stiffened again. "No", she replied, "It's like I said before," Blake sighed, "Sun's not really my type. Hanging out with him was…fun, but we're not going to be more than friends…are you smiling?"

Yang realized she was smiling and her face had opened a flood gate of crimson. She quickly turned around. 'SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! MOTHER FUCKER! CONTROL YOUR FACE, YANG!' Yang screamed in her head. "Ruby! Weiss!" Yang yelled, blatantly ignoring Blake's observation as she went into panic mode, "We need to get to class, this year! Let's go!" Ruby stormed out with her toothbrush still in her mouth and only half of her hair tamed; she announced, "To class and beyond!" She slipped on her boots, raised her bag to the sky and charged out the door.

"Close the fucking door!" Weiss wailed, "I'm still in here!" Blake chuckled and walked over to close the door, "You go ahead. I'll wait up for our princess."

"I can hear you, Mrs. Tuna!" Weiss yelled, "And I don't think a little privacy is asking for-"

Blake slammed the bathroom door shut and turned back to Yang, "See you later."

Trying not to laugh about Weiss, Yang grabbed her bag and raced after her sister.

Yang was getting extremely worried at this point; she'd messaged Sun roughly thirty times already from her scroll and he still hadn't replied telling how the date went. She was probably making herself look extremely suspicious no matter how 'worried' she claimed to be about Blake, but she hardly cared. Hearing the sweet confirmation of Blake's orientation was far more appealing than appearing to be a level headed huntress in training. Sitting in class was torture as Yang awaited the only time she'd see Sun in person for sure during the day: lunch. Thankfully the anticipation of releasing her feelings kept her fully awake despite still having no sleep behind her. She managed to keep her head up, frantically glancing at the ticking clock every few seconds as Professor Port continued and eventually concluded his epic tale of being stranded in 'Ursa Territory'.

When the bell finally rang, the sky lifted from Yang's shoulders. Yang charged out of the classroom, completely ignoring Ports announcements of homework, and ran like hell to the cafeteria.

Once the cafeteria was in sight, she saw Sun was outside the doors, no doubt waiting for Neptune to show up. Yang's speedy approach wasn't exactly subtle. As Sun noticed the bright blonde charging straight for him, he immediately started backing away from the cafeteria doors.

Before Sun could turn around and make a break for it, Yang snatched his tail and forcefully dragged him to the ground, effectively preventing any escape. "Ow!" Sun protested, "Why the hell would you do that? Not cool!" Yang released his tail and Sun quickly started cradling it in his arms.

"Yeah, almost as uncool as you ignoring all of my messages!" Yang said, accusingly, "I'm really worried about Blake. How did the date go?"

Sun sighed. "It went fine?" Sun said, clearly not sure of himself, "I mean, the movie was cool and she _really_ liked the seafood we got, and I mean_ really_ liked-"

"Don't lie to me!" Yang snapped, quickly losing her stability. "She's been acting differently and I'm worried about my teammate. What the hell happened?" Yang realized if it really did just go normally, she was screwed. She'd have no confirmation of Blake's interests and would either have to blindly tell her or keep those feelings locked up even longer.

As Sun struggled to form a response, Yang felt like she was going to break down. She slowly turned away from Sun.

"Well there was one thing…" Sun started.

Yang's neck darted back to Sun and she immediately regained her composure, "What? What happened?"

Sun hesitated, "Look, I'm only bringing this up since you seem so worried about her…and I guess it might make sense…but she kind of told me to keep it to myself…"

"Cut the crap, Sun! What is it?" Yang begged, trying to stay hopeful.

Sun sighed, "She told me, as blunt as day, she's asexual. That may be really fucking with her emotions. Maybe she thinks she's incapable of being loved or something? I mean…or…Yang?"

Yang was already walking away.

"Does that make sense? Is she okay? Damn it! Please don't tell her I told you! If she gets pissed at me, I'm totally not…"

Sun's voice trailed off as Yang walked away, feeling far more lost than she'd felt in a long time.

* * *

**So...if you have A TON of questions, many will hopefully be answered next chapter. I was debating to write even more as to keep you guys out of the dark, but with 3,000 words already...yeah. Besides, that'll hopefully make the next chapter even more satisfying...or even more painful to wait for. ^_^' I also wanted to clear up I do have an outline for the story. While I joke about not knowing where to go, I mainly mean details. DETAILS. Those pesky things that make a story actually make sense or not...ugh. But anyways, I hope the next chapter will arrive in a timely manner.**


	5. Chapter 5 - From the Shadow's Side

**These chapters are slowly getting longer and longer. I had a lot more planned for this chapter, but this whole section took up much longer than I'd anticipated. I'm sure you're not complaining about its length or how exactly I cut up the chapters, so I'll shut up. Hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

Blake:

'I cannot believe my 'beloved' teammates would gang up against me and force me to go out with Sun.' Blake walked down the crowded streets of Vale, feeling incredibly foolish. She checked the clock on her scroll. It read '5:56'. Blake groaned; she was going to arrive on time.

Blake and Sun had agreed to meet at the local theater just out of Beacon where they'd see the new 'Ultimate Hunters' movie and then go out to eat at a small seafood place by the docks. Blake was satisfied with the plan as both the theater and the restaurant were extremely casual to match Blake's black jeans, loose gray top, rough black boots, and untamable black hair. If there was one thing Blake could like about Sun, it would be how consistently casual he acted. Blake felt like even if she cared about this date, she still wouldn't be one bit nervous about it.

However, Blake wasn't at all interested in the current situation. She had only agreed to this for one reason. Not to satisfy her teammates, not to help Sun's self-esteem, and certainly not to get a boyfriend. Blake was only going out with Sun to convince those around her that she was straight. Blake wasn't coming to terms with her conflicting thoughts any time soon and certainly didn't want others to be debating it before she'd figured out what her own deal was. She would've much rather told Sun to fuck off than to humor him, but her teammates expected her to be somewhat decent and she still saw Sun as a friend after all.

'It would be simple to just be the airhead who rejects every offer from every guy,' Blake thought to herself, 'but I'm not going to let these…'questionable' feelings turn me into a lonely bitch if I don't have to. I'm going to just try and turn down Sun easy and then tell my teammates that it just didn't work out.'

Blake arrived at the small theater right at 6:00; she saw Sun was waiting outside against the wall of the building wearing his usual jean shorts and unbuttoned shirt. 'Perfect,' Blake thought.

Sun looked up from his scroll as Blake walked up, he hastily put his scroll down and stood up from leaning on the wall, "Hey, Blake!"

'Well, here we go,' Blake thought. "Hey, Sun," she replied, trying to make herself smile. She realized quickly, however, there was no way she could hold a fake grin the entire night. She decided Sun would simply have to deal with her usual neutral face – not that anyone would expect anything different of her expression anyway. It would be a genuine smile or nothing.

Sun rummaged through his pockets and quickly pulled out two slips of paper; he raised the wrinkled tickets as he said, "I already bought our tickets, so we can go ahead and take our seats…or get some food first if you want. The previews start in five minutes but the real movie should start a little later…so yeah"

Blake wanted to chuckle in response to how Sun kept rambling. It was kind of cute how nervous he seemed to be, but Blake still didn't want to lead him on; she still wasn't actually interested in him! 'This will all blow over easier if you just stay your emotionless self,' Blake decided, '…well mostly…emotionless…anyways.'

"Sounds like a plan," Blake replied, blandly. "I brought money for snacks, so you can go find our seats." Sun looked surprised. He'd been expecting to be 'gentlemanly' and pay for everything, but he certainly wasn't going to argue if Blake wished to contribute.

"Sounds good," Sun agreed as they started walking through the theater doors. Sun raised the tickets to the employee manning the booth inside as they walked up.

"Ah, Ultimate Hunters, eh?" the worker commented as he tore the tickets in half. "That's in the third theater to your right. It's not exactly the most romantic movie, though. I hope you won't be disappointed." The employee winked at the couple, clearly enjoying himself.

Blake just rolled her eyes and started walking through, but Sun's face started burning as he stumbled over his words, "Oh, it'll be fine…I'm sure" He rubbed the back of his head as he hurried past the employee to catch up to Blake.

"You heard that? Third theater to the…um," Sun scrambled for his words.

"Right. It's the third theater to the right. I'll meet you there in a bit," Blake turned around and approached the food counter before Sun could embarrass himself any more. Sun kept furiously rubbing his head, chuckling in attempt to keep himself from freaking out. "Will do!" he called as he proceeded towards the theaters.

Blake really wanted to burst out laughing; she thought it was adorable how Sun was acting. If she was into guys, she could see herself being more than friends with Sun, but since she wasn't…Blake sighed as she stood in the line. Before she could start arguing with her feelings again, however, she heard yelling from further ahead in the line for snacks.

"Fuck off! Leave us alone, assholes!"

Blake leaned her head around the line and saw towards the front there was a group of guys surrounding two girls. The two girls were holding hands.

The guys in the crowd were all laughing like idiots. One of them barked, "Oh, did you want privacy now? Did you two need a room? You two were making out earlier in the theater, so why can't my friends and I just watch you now?"

One of the men snapped a picture with his scroll right in their faces. Another grabbed one of the girl's arms in an attempt to push them closer together. The girl yanked her arm away and started crying as she gripped her partner's hand tighter. The other girl turned towards the same guy and slapped him across the face, nearly knocking him to the ground.

"Don't you fucking touch her! What the fuck makes you think you can objectify us like this?" she yelled as she glared daggers around the crowd.

"Heh," one of the guys chuckled, "You can't objectify objects."

The girl turned back to the speaking scumbag, raised her arm, and punched the man square in the nose. He fell to the ground and groped his face as his nose started oozing blood.

"Fuck you," the girl growled as she pulled her still crying partner through the yelling crowd to leave the movie theater. They stormed out, still holding hands.

The group of idiots helped their bleeding friend up. He just started laughing as he kept holding his face, "Ah, those fucking lesbians. It's _really_ sad they can't realize what freaks they are. They're almost as bad as a god damn faunus." The group of guys started laughing and patting each other's backs as they ran out of the theater behind the girls.

'W-what the fuck…' Blake could hardly believe what she'd just witnessed. She realized immediately she was a huntress in training and she should've stepped in there to help those poor girls, but she didn't. Blake had been frozen; she felt as if those guys were talking directly to her. If she ever accepted these feelings she's been fighting with, than she'd likely have to put up will _horrible _harassment like that regularly. That was the exact same reasoning as to why she hid her ears behind her bow – so others would see her for _who_ she was, not _what_ she was, but she couldn't exactly hide being a lesbian whenever going out in public…

Blake shuddered at the thought of being judged like those girls; she quickly bought some popcorn and soda, thinking she should ignore her feelings and just focus on letting Sun down easy for now. 'Wait, that's exactly why you're turning Sun down! How can you think not to consider these feelings now?' Blake snapped at herself.

Blake wanted to slam her head into her arms, but she couldn't well do that as she was carrying food in them. 'It's not like there's much to think about anyways,' Blake thought, 'I'm attracted to the female form. There's not much of a debate to be had there. If you like dicks, you're straight; if you like tits, you're gay…and since I'm for the latter…' Blake shook her head, "No, maybe I'm just bisexual! I like girls and guys…" Blake shook her head again, much harder this time, "No! Sun's clearly attractive! If I cared about guys then I'd be interested in him right now without a doubt, but I feel _nothing_."

Blake kept drowning in thoughts as she made her way into the theater and plopped down next to Sun. He'd found some decent seats towards the back where you could look down upon the whole theater, but Blake hardly noticed and didn't even reply when Sun asked for some popcorn.

"Hey! You'll get fat if you eat all of that popcorn on your own," Sun joked. He then panicked, thinking that might have been rude to say. "N-not that girls can't be fat if they want to. I mean you can keep any figure you want and it would be totally cool…" Blake still paid little attention to Sun, but she finally handed over the bucket of popcorn. Sun grinned as he started munching on the buttery bits.

The previews were still running so Sun thought he should make conversation. "So," he started, "have you read the book this movie was based off of? I assume it's pretty good since…they made a movie about it…yeah." Blake tried to ignore Sun. This would all go easier if she just stayed cold and distant, but the topic of books forced her to forget about all of that. Books were her trigger.

"_Books_," Blake corrected. "The 'Ultimate Hunters' series has ten books so far. The eleventh comes out next month."

Sun chuckled, "Somehow I knew you would've read it. Is that why you agreed to seeing this movie? You have high hopes?"

Blake scoffed, "Ha, I don't have any hopes for this movie. I'm going to catch every inaccuracy and every mistake. I'm only here to reassure myself reading is infinitely better. There's no way a movie could illustrate the complex internal conflicts of the hunters in the books."

Sun laughed, "I suspected about as much. Well, I'm glad I could be of assistance."

The two quieted down as the previews ended and the actual film began. It wasn't thirty seconds into the first scene that Blake leaned over to Sun and started whispering all of the problems she already had. Blake was really happy she'd managed to distract herself, at least for now. Reading amazing books or criticizing movie renditions of said books seemed to be her only way of easing her stress these days. She realized she was probably being really annoying, explaining all of the problems with the movie to Sun every minute or so, but Sun didn't seem to mind at all; he was just glad Blake was talking.

"Oh my god. That was the best movie I've seen in a long time." Sun said as they walked out of the theater" That one hunter with the cannon arm was _so_ fucking funny! And don't _even_ get me started on those fight scenes. Did you see how fucking big the Grimm were? They made the real creatures look like _nothing_!"

Blake couldn't help but scoff in reply, "The guy with the cannon is named Cobalt and they cut at least half of his lines. Not to mention they cut nearly a third of all the battles and still didn't bring up the plot point of the Grimm's Nest which was originally established in the first book. That movie we just saw was based off of book three. They should've gotten the hang of this by now."

Sun could hardly believe Blake's opinion; he truly thought the film was great. "Well if the books really make the movie look bad, then I'd better read them. They sound amazing."

"Ha, they're not even close to being the best books I've read," Blake said. "I can loan you them though if you want."

Sun nodded, "Heck yeah! Sounds good."

Blake suddenly realized they were just walking down the streets of Vale with no clear destination. "Are we heading to that seafood place now?" Blake asked.

Sun, surprised, responded, "Oh yeah! Crap crap…" He stumbled as he pulled out his scroll and quickly pulled up a map. Blake smiled, amused, as she gave him a second to get their bearings.

Sun looked up and dramatically pointed down the street. "Twenty blocks that way to the docks and then thirty feet to the left. Assuming we move at average walking speed, we'll arrive in about twenty minutes…"

Sun went silent. Blake picked up on his worry. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Sun checked his watch and then looked back at Blake with sparks in his eyes. "Our reservation expires in ten minutes," Sun announced as he launched himself down the sidewalk, "I WILL MEET YOU THERE!"

'What a gentleman,' Blake thought. She tried to make herself angry, but quickly found that she couldn't. She was having a decent time, despite her initial intentions. Blake certainly wasn't considering Sun as more than a friend, but maybe she could consider him as a better friend than she'd thought. As distractions sank away, she suddenly remembered she still needed a reason to turn Sun down.

She was initially going to just be as cold as she had to be to shut him down or admit she's a lesbian if she had too. But now Blake really didn't want to be a jerk to Sun - he was fun to hang out with, and she especially couldn't admit she was a lesbian after realizing the harassment that would ensue. Blake didn't dare imagine having that tightly held feeling presented to the open.

Suddenly Blake realized Sun was already _way _ahead of her. 'Heh,' she thought, as she distracted herself from her conflict again. 'Glad I didn't wear heels for this. Casual dress is infinitely more practical.' Blake proceeded to sprint full speed down the street to catch up to Sun.

As Blake and Sun sat down at their table, they were each panting and exhausted. They were both in great shape being in training as hunters and all, but twenty blocks in ten minutes proved to be nearly too much for them.

"So," Sun started, between gasps for air, "What are you ordering?"

"Anything," Blake immediately answered, "Just get me some water first!"

Sun laughed between breaths. "Yeah," Sun agreed, as he checked out the menu, "Sounds like a plan to me. How about some tuna? They have a 'buy two get one free' special it seems. We can split the third one if you want."

"Or," Blake responded, extremely interested now, "You can be generous and let me have the third one to myself."

Sun started laughing again, "That'll work too. I'm still pretty filled up on popcorn and soda."

The two placed their order as the waiter finally came by and soon enough he returned with three plates each filled with large cuts of fresh tuna fish and an assortment of vegetables and rice on the side. As soon as the plates landed on the table, Blake inhaled the first piece of tuna. She immediately slid her plate, still full of vegetables and rice, to the side and got half-way through the second cut before she came up for air.

Blake looked up and noticed Sun was being extremely quiet and was hardly touching his food. He was looking up and then quickly back down frequently. 'He's deep in thought…' Blake thought to herself. 'What could he be…wait no.' Blake started to grow uneasy. 'He's working up the courage to ask me to be his girlfriend! I've seen that look on Jaune's face plenty of times whenever he asks out Weiss. Shit! We need a plan to turn him down, _right now_!'

"H-hey Blake?" Sun finally said.

'_Fuck_,' Blake nearly screamed to herself. 'Think of something, Blake!'

Sun continued, "I know this may come off as kind of weird, but…"

'NO!' Blake wailed in her head, however still managing to keep a straight face on the outside.

"Are you straight?" Sun asked, flinching as he let out the words.

'No I won't be y-your…WHAT?' Blake started panicking, 'WHAT THE _FUCK_ DID YOU JUST ASK ME? HOW COULD YOU…? WHAT?'

"I'm sorry; I just heard some advice that it's supposed to be a polite thing to ask on a date since we live in the twenty first century and all…" Sun's voice trailed off as he noticed how blood-shot Blake's eyes were growing.

'Where the fuck did you hear advice like _that_?' Blake snapped in her mind, 'In what fucking situation would it be normal and casual to confirm what someone's sexuality was?'

Sun seemed to guess the answer by Blake's shocked expression. "Oh god," Sun mumbled, "I'm so sorry…Yang implied this might happen. I didn't actually think she meant it…I'm so sorry…"

_'Yang_? My teammates have already figured this out before I've even been sure about it?'

"…I…it's fine if you're into girls. I-I totally understand…I just didn't think…" Sun's voice trailed off again. Blake really started freaking out now; she had to stop Sun's thought before it solidified into a belief. Blake was nowhere near being ready to go public about this.

"No!" Blake blurted out, "I am not into girls!" Her crazed expression seemed to indicate the opposite, but Sun certainly wasn't going to argue.

"Oh…" Sun said, now of course wondering why Blake was freaking out then. "You're straight then?"

She couldn't just casually say she was straight now. She'd already freaked out about the question that should've had a simple answer and Blake really didn't want to outright lie to Sun and to herself about her interests. Sun was clearly expecting an answer if she was straight or not. 'I can't force myself to lie that I'm straight or bisexual,' Blake frantically reasoned, 'I also can't tell him that I'm gay because…because I just _can't_ deal with that right now! What else can I be? How can I bail out of this?'

Suddenly the answer popped into her head. It was a simple solution that would buy her infinite time to figure out her real feelings and would keep all guys off of her.

Blake calmed herself down. With her pupils, now regularly sized again, Blake responded, "No, Sun. I'm asexual."

Sun shifted awkwardly in his seat. "Oh," he replied as he took in the information.

"Look, I'm sorry," Blake said, quickly. "I never wanted to lead you on tonight; I only really agreed to this since my teammates pressured me into it…"

Sun's eyes weren't leaving the table now. He certainly hadn't anticipated anything like this happening.

Blake was feeling really bad for him now. "But," she added, "I still had a great time. The movie was really fun to watch despite its problems and this dinner has been delicious. I'd love to do this again as friends. You're a really fun time, Sun!"

Sun looked up and quickly returned his usually quirky smile, "Heh, next time you're buying your own movie ticket and your own dinner, though. Friends don't need to treat other friends like this."

Blake smiled, glad Sun wasn't freaking out. "Fair enough," Blake replied. "I'm looking forward to it…also…"

Sun gave his attention, "What's up?"

"I-I'm not entirely open about being asexual…would you mind keeping it between us?"

Sun nodded, "You bet. No one will hear a peep out of me."

Blake leaned back in her seat, relieved this whole crisis had been avoided. She wasn't crazy about pretending to be asexual, but pretending to be attracted to nothing sounded much more appealing than pretending to be attracted to guys. Blake certainly wasn't convincing herself that she wasn't gay, but at least now she could feel it was a secure secret that she could deal with later.

"Hmm," Sun continued, "There was one other thing though…the only reason I actually built up the courage to ask you out was because Yang encouraged me to do so. She was the one who gave me all of the advice. She said you talked about me in 'very positive light'."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she replied. Now that she thought of it, Yang seemed to ask about who was calling her earlier as if she already knew it would be Sun. "Well that certainly doesn't sound like me…it sounds like we've been set up."

"Yeah I wonder why…" Sun thought out loud.

The rest of the night was relatively uneventful. After finishing their meal, the two walked back to Beacon through the dimly lit streets of Vale. Back at the academy, Sun escorted Blake all the way back to her dorm. She thanked him again for the enjoyable evening and made sure one last time he wasn't upset about the outcome.

"No way, Blake. It's totally cool and I'll make sure no one hears from me that you're asexual." Sun walked off unaware of what priceless information he'd gathered and how successful his mission had gone…for better or worse….

Blake went up to her team's room. She realized she was arriving relatively late as she saw everyone else was already asleep. Blake changed into her pajamas and climbed up onto her bunk. As she lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, she would usually stayed up trying to decide if she could really be gay and if so how to deal with it, but instead tonight, she spent her time slowly falling asleep thinking of Yang and why the hell she'd set up that date with Sun…

* * *

**So some clarification. Unlike Yang, Blake hasn't accepted being homosexual. For the same reason she wears a bow, she pretends to be straight. However, Sun's direct question takes her way off guard and forces her to claim to be asexual. She also has no direct interest in Yang yet. In the midst of trying to figure herself out, she's had no time to actually think about what girls she likes. I hope I've put the right pieces into play.**


	6. Chapter 6 - Hope

**I don't have anything to actually say up here. Enjoy ;)**

* * *

Yang:

The sky was bright blue, the trees and grass were rich with green, and the slight breeze made it feel like the perfect temperature. It seemed like a cruel joke to Yang how the whole world around her could look and feel so deceptively perfect around her as she sat in an isolated courtyard all by herself. She sat curled up on a bench just thinking to herself and trying not to cry too loudly. This little path surrounded by thick trees and bushes was the only spot Yang could think of to be left alone. She'd lost track of how long she'd stayed there. It must've been afternoon by now since the sun was starting to climb down from the sky. Yang likely missed all the rest of her classes after she fled from Sun, but she really couldn't care less about them at the moment.

'Blake is asexual,' Yang kept thinking to herself. 'Blake is _fucking_ asexual. The universe lets me know this immediately after I decide I want to be with her. I could've learned this yesterday or any day after coming to Beacon, but no. I learn that I never had a shot with the love of my life and never will have a chance _after _I decide I love her.'

Yang buried her eyes deeper into her knees. She had thought earlier all she wanted was to be held in Blake's arms for the rest of time, but now she just wanted to pathetically wallow in her thoughts for the rest of time. All the plans she'd come up with were ruined. She knew in her gut she should've expected something like this would happen. There was never a good probability of Blake being a lesbian in the first place, but Yang had simply felt so sure last night. She had let hope take over and disaster ensued which was exactly why she'd been suppressing these feelings the entire time at Beacon.

'What the hell do I do now?' Yang asked herself. It was hard for to think straight as she kept shuddering in sorrow. "What the hell _can_ I do? There's no way ever telling Blake about this is an option anymore. If she doesn't want a relationship with anyone then how the hell would whining about my feelings help anything? And even if I did tell her just to let her know, that may put guilt onto her. How am I helping anything if I just make her feel guilty for not loving me in return? That's not right for me to do. If she wants to be asexual, she has a right to be."

If Yang couldn't tell Blake she loved her then…'I'm going back to plan A,' Yang sighed. 'I have to keep this to myself and just hope I eventually get over her. Besides, the confirmation from that date with Sun was exactly what I'd wanted. Now that I know her sexuality for sure; I can move on…' Yang really wanted to believe that idea, but she felt in her gut there was no chance of her simply forgetting about these feelings. She had no other viable options though. It doesn't get much more black and white than telling Blake or not telling Blake.

"Yang!"

Yang brought her head up. Through her mess of blonde hair and watery eyes, she barely made out a girl dressed in black in red. 'Oh no,' Yang thought, 'Ruby's still going to expect to hear about my problem. I'm not going to be able to avoid it…especially now that she's found me like this.'

Ruby ran up to her sister, clearly distressed. "Where the heck have you been?" Ruby demanded. "You never showed up to lunch or Ooblek's class! We've been looking for nearly two hours now! What are you-"

Ruby suddenly realized Yang was crying. She immediately wanted to back up and restart with a much calmer tone. She had been insanely worried about her sister's disappearance, but that could wait until later. Ruby sat next to her crying sister and wrapped her arms around her. She was surprised how much Yang was trembling.

"Why are you crying, Yang?" Ruby asked, as soothingly as possible. "It's all right, I'm here for you sis!" Ruby rested her head onto Yang's shoulder, trying to get her to relax. Yang appreciated Ruby's effort, but when she tried to speak, she just broke down into more tears. Ruby noticed Yang's struggle and decided she'd need to take more of an initiative.

"Is this about the same problem you were talking about earlier today?" Ruby asked. Yang managed to nod in response. "Did you solve it today?" Ruby continued, knowing the likely answer. Yang was asking herself the same question, though. Yang had gotten the confirmation from Sun she'd wanted before, but in the process she'd created the new psychological ordeal of actually getting over Blake. 'I'm sitting here bawling,' Yang thought. 'That doesn't sound like a solved problem to me.'

Yang opened her mouth, and eventually managed to squeak, "No."

Ruby looked up at her sister. "Can you tell me what the problem is?" Ruby asked. "I really hate seeing you like this, and I want to help." Ruby was clearly trying not to pry too fiercely, but Yang could tell even her own skills of evasion weren't going to work anymore.

Yang sighed as she blinked her eyes clear of most of her tears and parted her hair from her face. Ruby released Yang from the hug as the blonde curled out of her ball and turned to face her sister on the bench. 'Well here goes everything,' Yang thought.

"Ruby, you already figured out that I'm gay, right?" Yang started, still trying to secure her voice from shaking. Ruby's eyes went wide.

"Oh gosh, Yang! I didn't mean anything by telling you not to look at those magazines!" Ruby said, feeling guilty. "I never meant to imply liking girls was wrong! It's _completely _normal! Don't you dare feel bad about that!" Ruby forced another hug upon Yang as she kept rambling about how normal Yang was. Yang couldn't help but start weakly laughing in response. She'd come to terms with being a lesbian so long ago that feeling abnormal about it sounded ridiculous to her.

Ruby slowly pulled away in confusion as Yang kept laughing. "That's not my problem, Ruby," Yang eventually managed to say. "I know it's completely normal - honest."

"Oh," Ruby replied, relieved yet still confused. "What's wrong then? Why'd you bring being a lesbian up?"

Yang sighed, "The issue is who I like."

"Oh," Ruby repeated, feeling awkward now. "Did she turn you down?"

Yang groaned and buried her head back into her hands. The thought of Blake outright declining her sounded like even worse of a situation. "No," Yang answered, "She didn't have to."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"I sort of…" Yang hesitated. "I kind of set her up on a date with someone so I could figure out from them if she was a lesbian or not…and…you know."

Ruby nodded, "She's straight then?"

Yang shook her head, "No, she's asexual."

Ruby looked puzzled, "Doesn't that just mean she doesn't feel any sexual attraction? I thought asexuals still pursued romantic relationships."

Yang shook her head, "She claimed to be asexual as a specific reason to turn my agent down. If she was open enough to say she was asexual, then why wouldn't she be open enough to say she still wanted romantic relationships with women?" Yang tried to hold herself together as her eyes started to open the flood gates. "It's no use thinking 'maybes'. The fact is she's never going to love me back, no matter what I do."

Ruby was clueless as to what to do now as Yang collapsed back into her sobbing. She thought she was pretty good at giving advice and encouraging her friends and family, but seeing Yang like this made her feel like complete rubbish.

"Why didn't you come and tell us this sooner? You've clearly been bearing this for a while now. As Weiss said, we need to stick together and be open to each other about our struggles," Ruby tried to think of some way to make Yang cheer up. "Look, why don't we go hang out with Weiss and Blake?"

Yang seemed to tremble even harder at the suggestion.

"C'mon, we should go work on all of the make-up work you have stacked up now. Then maybe the four of us can go see a movie or something. Blake mentioned to me there were lots of movies out and she'd be willing to see the 'Ultimate Hunters' movie again to find more inaccuracies in it. I read the first four books in the series and they were pretty good…so"

Somehow Yang seemed to grow even more distant.

Ruby sighed. "Come on, Yang. I think some time with your team would do you some good and-"

"It's Blake, Ruby! It's Blake!" Yang yelled as if she'd just released a nuke. "I'm in love with Blake!" Yang immediately condensed even further into a ball after releasing her secret. Ruby realized how horrible her suggestions were. Ruby let Yang weep in peace as she awkwardly sat beside her, letting the news sink in.

Ruby:

After messaging Weiss and Blake, informing them that she'd found Yang, Ruby had no choice but to remain in the courtyard with her suffering older sister. She didn't mind since she just pulled out some homework to work on; she wasn't going to leave Yang anyways though. Yang had always been there for her and Ruby wasn't about to fail at returning all of the favors.

Ruby wasn't sure how exactly she felt about this revelation. She never expected Yang to of kept hidden feelings like this. Her sister always seemed so in tune and in control of her emotions. She felt kind of guilty about not picking up on Yang's issue sooner, but then again keeping her feelings hidden seemed to be Yang's intention in the first place.

Now Ruby needed to decide how to proceed from here. 'I can't very well just make her come back to the team and get back to normal,' Ruby thought, "but I also can't simply allow her to keep mourning like this. The only solution seems to be to get her together with Blake…but if Blake really has no intention of any relationships then that plan won't go anywhere."

Ruby shook her head. She knew Blake didn't exactly have a constant frequency for her emotions or general attitude towards life, but she never thought of her as being completely repelled to love entirely. 'She reads tons of romance novels after all and there's a _ton _of 'romance' in that ninjas of love series she reads,' Ruby thought. 'I dare say Blake just claimed to be asexual to get Sun away from her on her date yesterday. Blake certainly seems the type to take more drastic measures if needed, especially if Sun was really prying for information. If Yang was in a better state of mind, maybe she'd realize that Blake could still be a lesbian…then again, if she actually used Sun as her 'agent' then maybe she hasn't been in a great state of mind recently. Sun isn't exactly my first pick for romantic espionage.'

Ruby looked over at Yang to her side. Yang had quit crying; she seemed to have fallen asleep. Ruby chuckled to herself. 'For Yang's sake, I'm placing my bets that Blake lied. There's a good chance Blake is a lesbian,' Ruby decided. 'I'm going to do everything in my power to set them up together. I'm going to…' Ruby grinned at how clever she was.

"I'm going to build a bumblebee," Ruby whispered to Yang as she soundly slept.

* * *

**The secret's out! OH MY GOD. Is Ruby going to help? Is she just going to make it worse? Is it annoying that this was labelled as bumblebee and now Ruby is has a role in it? Is there going to be an eventual whiterose too since Ruby is doing stuff? Could Blake be a lesbian? Is the sky really blue? Well I know the answer to one of those questions since all of chapter 5 was about it, but regardless. Thanks again for all your support, really keeps my motivation fueled. See you for chapter 7 :)**


	7. Chapter 7 - Dilemma

**I'm really glad I managed to write this all as one chapter. I hoped to explain Blake's point of view a bit further and I really didn't want it to extend it longer than it needed to. Tell me how I did! I want to thank you all again for your support. Every follow, favorite, and review has really encouraged me and this probably wouldn't have gotten this far without them. Thanks so much, hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

Blake:

All of Blake's classes managed to drag on forever today. They weren't any different than any other day, but the thoughts on her mind were giving her no patience for the world around her. As she sat through Professor Port's lecture, she couldn't stop trying to figure out what Yang was up to.

'Sun let on that the entire date was set up by Yang,' Blake thought. 'Otherwise, he wouldn't have built up the courage to call me and ask. Then Yang pounced on me with questions the second Sun and I hung up. I was thinking of declining and was likely going to…but Yang wasn't going to let that happen…'

Blake twiddled her pencil between her fingers as she saw some students were falling victim to distractions. She could hear other students behind her goofing off and saw Port was starting to scan the crowd for a volunteer to answer one of his questions. Blake started mindlessly drawing doodles on her paper to pretend that she was paying attention so she wouldn't be targeted.

'I would say Yang was just trying to be a good friend and set me up with Sun. I have been pretty distant and moody lately and I could see how forcing me onto a date could be a viable idea to cheer me up…in _her_ mind anyways,' Blake thought, still slightly sour about her ordeal with Sun. 'However, she smiled this morning when I told her Sun and I weren't going to work out. Why would she be _happy_ about that? That also doesn't answer why Yang made Sun ask if I'm straight! Sun blatantly implied all of the advice he got was from her! Yang's a decent social interactor; she should know that throwing questions about sexuality isn't a good topic on a first date…or ever as far as I'm concerned. Why the heck did she…'

"Yang Xiao Long!"

Blake jumped back into reality as Port suddenly jolted away from his lecture.

"Thank you for volunteering! What is one of the most dangerous ways humans have used dust to fight the Grimm?" Port demanded, clearly confident in catching out Yang today.

'Well here we go again,' Blake thought.

"Uh," Yang struggled as she was put on the spot. She kept glancing at the clock throughout her answer. "People might eat dust to absorb its energy or something…I'll bet that's pretty dangerous!" Yang's grand smile was almost as stupid looking as her answer.

Port didn't even hesitate today. "No." He immediately continued his discussion of dust weaponry and how people merged dust with their own flesh. This method, he specified, had no ingestion involved in it.

Blake tried to hide her smile; she saw how red Yang had gotten. Blake had taken pity on her yesterday as she could tell Yang was essentially dead from a lack of sleep, but today Yang had been fully awake and thus was to be left to face her own punishment.

'That reminds me,' Blake thought. 'What the heck is the problem Yang has been dealing with? She's been losing tons of sleep over whatever it is. I've heard her up at night breathing very oddly and on occasion talking to herself. She seemed pretty distant about it this morning when Ruby interrogated her, but if Yang keeps her promise, I suppose we'll all find out what it is by the end of the day. I wonder…'

Port's lecture finally ended after what felt like an eternity. Blake gathered her belongings and left the classroom without thinking twice about Port's announcements on what readings to do; Blake had already read many chapters ahead. However, she did turn and notice that Yang was already out of the room and bolting down the hallway. That was very unlike her; usually the scatter brain had to take a minute or two to ensure she had the right readings written down, not that she ever did them anyways.

'Maybe they just have a really good lunch today,' Blake considered. She started off to the cafeteria, imagining a grand salmon dinner with rich milk awaiting her.

Upon arriving in the cafeteria, Blake glanced through the open doors and saw Ruby and Weiss were already seated at their usual spot with team JNPR. After sadly noting the lack of salmon, Blake also realized Yang was nowhere to be found.

As Blake stepped through the doors of the lunch hall, she heard a sharp, "pssst," to her right. She turned and saw Sun was standing there, against the wall. Blake turned and walked up to her fellow faunus.

"What is it?" Blake asked, hoping this wasn't going to have anything to do with their previous date.

Sun scratched his head, clearly confused from the start. "Um, first of all, I'm sorry, but uh…you see…I…uh"

Blake rolled her eyes. "Spit it out. What is it?" she demanded.

Sun took a deep breath. "Okay," he started. "A few minutes ago, Yang came up to me and insisted something went wrong last night with our date; she said you were acting really weird and that she was really worried about you…"

That certainly got Blake's attention. She narrowed her gaze at Sun, expecting more clarification.

Sun started nervously laughing. He quickly continued, "So when she demanded to know what may have caused you to be acting like that, I kind of mentioned that you said you were asexual. Then Yang stormed away without saying another word. I'm really sorry I broke my promise, but Yang was freaking me out and her leaving like that has me freaking out even more…" Sun's voice trailed off as he started mildly hyperventilating.

'What the_ fuck_ has Yang been up to?' Blake thought. "Look, Sun," Blake started, "It's okay that you told her…I think." Blake shook off the possible implications of Yang knowing about her fake sexuality. "I'm fine, so I'm not sure why she was acting so worried. I'll go talk to her later. Thanks for letting me know. You can quit freaking out."

Sun nodded, "Well that's certainly a weight off of my mind. I thought for sure you'd be pissed at me. Well I'll see you later; I hope Yang's okay…." As Sun made his way over to where Neptune and the rest of his team were sitting, Blake stood thinking, 'Believe me Sun, I _am_ pissed, but it's at another crazy blonde.'

Blake made her way over to her team, taking note that Yang was still absent from the table.

"Have you seen Yang?" Weiss asked as Blake sat down next to her.

"Nope," Blake replied, wondering the same thing.

Weiss scowled. "This is just like her to ask for help on the essay for Oobleck's class at lunch and then proceed to not show up. I'm not going to happy if I lugged my history textbook with me for nothing."

'It sounds like she fully intended to be here…' Blake thought. 'Why the heck would she disappear after talking to Sun? What the hell is she up to?'

These questions infested Blake for the rest of the school day. Oobleck wasn't lecturing in his class; he simply assigned busy work so, for better or worse, Blake's mind was allowed to wander as she slugged through mountains of worksheets on information she already taught herself a month ago.

'Yang doesn't just skip lunch,' Blake thought to herself. 'She absorbs food like a tear in space; she wouldn't just decide to skip it for no reason….' Blake sighed. 'Then why the heck did she? '

Blake's mind drifted too far from her work so she accidently snapped the lead of her pencil. She sighed, grabbed a new one, and continued writing.

'Calm down, Blake. Let's think rationally here.' Blake told herself. 'Okay. Yang's actions were out of character. Things that would cause something like that would be either going insane or having emotional distress. Yang has been having sleeping problems, but she seemed fine earlier today. Also, I doubt she would be triggered by that conversation she had with Sun and she's shown no other signs of crazier than normal. Mental problems probably weren't the cause of her actions. That leaves us with option B…emotional distress.'

Blake leaned back in her chair. 'From what Sun described, Yang was already freaking out as she was talking to him, but she was functioning fine in class. Whatever caused her to bail lunch was from that conversation with Sun. but…' Blake tried to recall all the details Sun had mentioned.

'She was either set off by hearing I was asexual or by something Sun failed to mention. I doubt Sun would leave out any details; though, he seemed too panicked to hide anything. But…why would Yang freak out over hearing that I was asexual?' Blake pondered the thought for a moment. 'I can think of three possible reasons…'

Blake finished the first worksheet and sorted through her textbook for the appropriate pages for the next one. She felt subconscious resistance to thinking through the three possibilities. It was as if she already knew the answer and didn't want to fully recognize it. However, curiosity pushed her mind forward.

'The obvious answer would be she's pissed at me for not mentioning my sexuality to her,' Blake thought. 'It might cause anger in realizing I trusted information with Sun over my teammate…but it doesn't seem like the type of thing Yang would get upset over and I don't believe anyone would simply decide to disappear over it. The other possibility is she really had faith in Sun and I becoming a couple. She set up the date after all; maybe she was heartbroken over hearing my supposed orientation and the fact Sun and I wouldn't be becoming a couple. However, when asking about the date this morning, Yang blatantly smiled over that very fact. She seemed overjoyed that Sun and I weren't going to be together.'

Blake's heart rate slowly escalated as the final viable option slipped into her processing. She put down her pencil and started scratching her forehead.

'The only other possible reason I can see that Yang would be this emotionally affected over hearing me being asexual would be…' Blake almost choked on the words that weren't even coming from her lips. '…would be…if she liked me.'

Blake physically felt her eyes dilate as the thought pulsed across her neurons. She had to support the weight of head in her hands so it wouldn't collapse to the desk. Her mind rushed as she analyzed all of the previous data considered. The theory made perfect sense and aligned with every detail collected so far. It gave Yang a motive to set up the date. She set Blake up and gave Sun crappy advice just to hear what Blake's sexuality was. Then she eagerly approached Sun today for the collected information and upon hearing Blake wasn't a lesbian, was traumatized and bailed.

The feeling of realization started to overwhelm Blake as she realized this answered so many other odd occurrences. 'That's why she's been blushing so much around me…' Blake thought in a trance. 'And this must be the big problem she talked about. She's been losing sleep over me. Gah, what the hell, Yang?'

"Ms. Belladona!"

Blake snapped back to reality and nearly jumped up through her desk. She focused herself and saw Professor Oobleck was talking to her.

"Yes, sir?" Blake asked, clueless as to what was going on.

Oobleck was laughing. "Ah, you didn't even notice did you? You truly are the diligent worker. The bell has already rung. You can go!" Blake looked around and saw the room was entirely empty. The rapture had struck and Blake hadn't even noticed. Blake quickly packed up her belongings and started towards the door.

"Sorry, sir…I just…uh," Blake struggled to find the reason for her obliviousness.

Oobleck just kept laughing. "Nothing to apologize for, my dear, just don't get distracted like that in your combat classes. I'll see you for class on Monday," he said as he sorted his papers and took a sip from his thermos.

Blake nodded and awkwardly left, still feeling lost in her mind.

As Blake walked through the halls of the academy on her way back to the dorms, her scroll's blaring sound went off. She raised the device, seeing that Ruby was calling her.

"Hello? What's up, Ruby?" Blake asked.

"H-have you seen Yang anywhere?" Ruby asked in response. She immediately had Blake's attention. " She never showed up to any of her classes after lunch and she's not answering my calls and I can't find her and I'm _freaking _out."

"W-what? She still-" Blake stammered. 'Yang's really crushed by my lie…does she actually like me that much? Is that truly going on?' Blake tried to calm her thoughts down for Ruby's sake.

Blake took a deep breath and replied, "Okay, you're looking for her right? Where have you already checked?"

"I already went by our room and none of her stuff was there. I'm checking the library right now," Ruby replied, clearly still sick with worry.

"Okay," Blake stated, "I'm going to drop my books off at the room. After that, where do you want me to look for her?"

"I already sent Weiss to check all of the class rooms and study groups on campus. If you could check the sparring arena and the gym, that'd be great…wait, hey Yang!"

Through the phone Blake heard Ruby start yelling off to someone. 'Oh thank god. It sounds like Ruby found her,' Blake thought, relieved

Ruby sighed, now back on her scroll, "It was not Yang. It was a bright yellow curtain…"

Blake groaned in response. Stress really seemed to bring out Ruby's childish nature at times. "Okay, I'll head over to the sparring arena and the gym. We'll find her soon enough, Ruby."

"I hope so…" Ruby's voice trailed off with worry as she disconnected the call.

'God damn it,' Blake thought as she continued back to the dorms. This whole situation arose so suddenly with Yang. She almost didn't want to find Yang because of the fear of what may proceed to happen next. 'If Yang truly likes me and heard I was supposedly asexual,' Blake thought, 'she'd never be open about her feelings. She'll assume I'll never have interest in having a relationship with her so she should avoid bringing up the topic at all. Having a burden like that on her heart will tear our friendship apart and cripple our teamwork. If I want us to avoid that, then I'll have to approach her and tell her the truth…'

Blake shook her head, disoriented as to how to approach such a task. 'I'm a lesbian; I think I've accepted that fact. I could honestly imagine having a relationship with Yang, but…but.' Blake wanted to scream. 'I can't stand the thought of being openly gay. I'd be treated differently by everyone, everywhere I go. If I were to give Yang a shot, there's no way we'd ever go out in public or tell _anyone _other than our teammates…_if_ them, but how's that fair to Yang? She'd no doubt think I was somehow ashamed of her. With her outgoing personality and self-confidence, there's no way she'd consider herself beneath anyone else – she couldn't possibly understand my fear of being viewed differently...'

Blake burst through the door of their room. Looking around, she saw there was no Yang to be found. She placed her bag on her desk and then went right back out of the room to head to the arena.

'What's worse for me to do to Yang?' Blake thought as she wandered out of the dorm building. 'Is it worse to ignore Yang, leave her thinking that I'm asexual, and have her force herself to forget about me or to tell her the truth and condemn her to a relationship that I'll pretend isn't real whenever anyone asks? '

Plagued by this dilemma, Blake proceeded to examine the arena and the gym for any traces of the blonde. She met with team JNPR at the arena as they were sparring against another one of the first year teams. Unfortunately none of them had seen Yang since her disappearance. Blake left to check the gym as well and was met with the same results.

Guilt was starting to build up in Blake's heart. The thought that anything had happened to her teammate because of her lie to Sun was eating away at her. She messaged Ruby asking for other places to check over her scroll. She considered going into the city of Vale, but checking all the restaurants and clubs that Yang could be at would take days. Blake instead chose to aimlessly walk around the campus hoping for the sight of her bright yellow teammate.

After what felt like ages, Ruby finally sent a message back.

Blake hastily opened her scroll and read the message. It read: _The search is over. I finally found Yang in one of the courtyards. She's perfectly fine and we'll be back to the dorms soon enough._

Blake sighed with relief as at least part of the plague on her heart was purged. She turned and headed straight back to the dorms.

Blake walked through the door to find the white-haired princess already present at her desk. Even on a Friday afternoon, Weiss was still doing school work. Blake leaped onto her bunk and dropped her head to her pillow. Armed with her latest library book, she planned on bailing from reality in favor of reading about the struggles of others. Weiss, however, quickly ruined Blake's plans.

"I can't believe Yang did this," Weiss complained. She clearly had been waiting for someone to vent to.

"We all agreed to be open to each other about our problems after your episode last semester right? So why in all of Remnant would Yang keep whatever her issue is from us? It's escalated to the point that she's not turning up to class as if her paying no attention in them wasn't bad enough! We're going to set her straight and make sure she never pulls something again. Right, Blake?"

Blake wasn't sure how to respond to that idea. She could certainly understand why Weiss felt that way, but knowing the nature of Yang's problem, there's no way to have expected her to tell the team about it.

"I agree, Weiss," Blake started slowly, "but I'm sure Yang already knows that. She must have a reason for keeping her problem from us."

Weiss scoffed, "She _better_ have a reason."

Blake's eyes panned back down to the pages of her book as Weiss returned to her school work. It felt like only a few seconds of blissful separation from reality before the door burst open yet again. Through the door stumbled Ruby with Yang being dragged along in her arms. Blake immediately felt terrible yet again. Yang's entire face was swelled and blushed, clearly from crying. Her hair somehow seemed to be more of a mess than usual and even from across the room, Blake could tell Yang was shaking.

Weiss stood up from her desk; she had a moment of hesitation upon seeing Yang's condition, but chose to push her interrogation anyways.

"Yang, we were really worried about you! Why didn't you come to your teammates?" Weiss asked, trying to stay somewhat calm for Yang's sake.

Yang didn't even look over to Weiss. She walked over and fell face first onto her bed without a single word. If there was one thing that broke Weiss' nerves, it was being ignored.

"Hey, Yang!" Weiss demanded, "Your teammate is talking to you! Would you mind explaining what this problem you've been having is so we can help you? We all promised to come to each other with our issues so you need to-"

"That doesn't apply right now," Ruby interrupted.

Weiss turned her attention over to Ruby. "'doesn't apply'? Keeping things from each other is only going to tear our team apart. We need to all-"

"Weiss," Ruby interrupted, with a tone on the verge of yelling. "That rule doesn't apply right now, leave Yang alone." Weiss stared at Ruby in slight shock to Ruby's sudden shift. Weiss backed down and returned to the work on her desk. Ruby kept Weiss pinned with a glare as she set down her belongings and sat down on her own bed.

'Oh god, Yang,' Blake thought. It appeared Yang was already forced to tell Ruby and Ruby had full intent of keeping Yang's problem a secret. This solidified the theory that Yang wasn't ever going to admit her feelings. Blake was tempted to tell Yang the truth right there, but the barrier of possible judgement still held strong. 'I can't possibly offer Yang a relationship that I'd never let us be open about. Letting her date me while forcing her not to tell anyone sounds worse than just leaving her be. I don't want to consciously toy with her emotions more than I already unwillingly have! I wish I could be brave enough to be openly gay – I envy the willpower of those girls I saw at the movie theater with Sun. I wouldn't ever have such courage against something like that…but I don't have that strength – that determination. I'm sorry, Yang. I'm not strong enough and I'm not going to let weakness hurt you too.'

Blake tried to focus herself back onto her book. Her course of action had been chosen despite its glaring flaws. She was going to continue life as usual and pray that Yang does the same. Hiding behind her lie would hopefully save Yang from more emotional distress. Hopefully, Yang would get over Blake soon enough.

Unfortunately Blake's conscience wasn't in the clear. Her faith in her decision was far from solid as she spent the rest of the afternoon and much of the night hearing Yang bitterly crying to herself, muffled in her pillow. It killed her to know she was the cause of such suffering.

* * *

**Things aren't looking too good now...How are we going to build a Bumblebee now? :'( Fear not my friends, We may be on a lower part of the emotional roller coaster right now, but we'll start our ascent next chapter...I hope. *sobs. Anyways, I hope you didn't lose brain cells reading my work and I'll see you for chapter 8 :)**


	8. Chapter 8 - Interrogation

**Gah! I'm sorry! Life happened again! I'll try not to keep you guys waiting so long in the future...but you know...no promises...thanks life...Anyways, we passed 50 followers which is pretty crazy. I want to thank all of you for your support. I've said this a lot, but the motivation you all give me really is much appreciated. Ah but enough mushy stuff! Here's the next chapter, Enjoy! :)**

* * *

Ruby:

"I'm leaving now; I'll see you all later!" Weiss announced as she left team RWBY's room. It was finally the weekend so Weiss was going to do some shopping in the city of Vale. Blake had also left to roam the campus, leaving Ruby and Yang alone in the room. It was nearly the afternoon, but Yang had only gotten out of bed moments ago after extended motivation from her sister. She was now taking an eternal shower as Ruby sprawled on her bed trying to figure out what to do.

'Yang isn't burning like her normal self,' Ruby thought. 'I can't imagine how she must be feeling; I have to do something to fix her up with Blake. That seems to be the only thing that could cheer her up. Maybe I can convince her to approach and tell Blake how she feels? Yang clearly doesn't want anyone to hear about her feelings and I didn't tell Weiss and Blake yesterday for her sake, but I certainly don't support keeping it a secret. It'll tear the bond between Blake and Yang if not that of the entire team.'

Ruby sighed; she heard Yang was out of the shower now by the shower door being slammed shut. 'Maybe I can spark some hope into her somehow,' Ruby thought. 'Yang may be slow to admit it, but she listens to my advice. Maybe I could convince her there's still a chance of Blake being open to a romantic relationship. Then Yang could just go confess her love to Blake and either they'd live happily ever after if Blake admits to being a lesbian or Yang will get more confirmation that Blake's an asexual and…uh. Well I'm sure she can't get much more depressed than she already is. I think it's worth the risk.' With the marginally formed plan decided, Ruby now awaited her sister's exit from the bathroom.

Finally Yang emerged through the door, appearing even more casual than usual. She wore baggy sweatpants and a yellow shirt that was way too big for her. Her hair somehow managed to be messier and more tangled than usual despite just washing it.

Yang slugged past Ruby and collapsed onto the chair of her desk. After staring at the clean slate of her work station for several seconds, Yang proceeded to plop her binder onto it and opened up to some mindless math problems – a fraction of the work she still needed to do.

'Well, here we go,' Ruby thought. She leapt off her bed and walked up to her sister.

"Hey, Yang. Are you feeling any better today?" Ruby asked.

Yang turned back to her younger sister, locking their eyes together. She gave a pleading look that begged 'leave me alone.' Ruby didn't want to make her sister feel any worse than she already did, but Ruby knew Blake was Yang's only chance. Ruby disregarded Yang's resistance and pushed forward.

"Yang," Ruby said, "I think you need to tell Blake how you feel."

Yang slowly set down her pencil as she turned her full attention to Ruby. Clearly on the verge of breaking down again, Yang pleaded, "Please just forget everything I told you yesterday. I-I'm trying to forget as well. We're just going to move on and pretend none of this ever happened. I just…" Yang lost it again as her voice cracked beyond repair and her eyes resumed its flow of tears. Yang curled back into a ball in her chair just like before.

Ruby immediately wanted to take it back and shut herself up, but she knew this was for Yang's own good. "Yang, there's still a chance Blake could love you back. If you could just find a little hope, I'm sure-"

"Don't you _dare _lecture me about _hope_," Yang yelled, suddenly enraged. Ruby stepped back, shocked at Yang's sudden shift. "Hope is the fucking reason this happened to me," Yang continued yelling as her eyes became a fiery red, "I was going to be perfectly, fucking fine with Blake being straight, asexual, or incapable of liking me for whatever reason. God damn, I initially planned that date with Sun specifically confirm Blake was straight so I could move on! But then I got blindly hopeful! I decided it was safe to admit that I loved her off of pure, baseless hope. I had kept myself from ever admitting to loving her for this very reason. Now that I've decided I love her, I'll _never_ forget about her." Yang eyes started to continue their flooding as they returned to their usual purple color. "I'm done hoping, Ruby," Yang whispered. "The sooner my pathetic heart can accept its mistake, the sooner I can move on with my pathetic life." Yang dug her head into knees, without any sign of leaving.

Completely caught off guard, Ruby stood staring at her weeping sister. She never thought Yang would be one to not only abandon in, but blame hope for her problems. Ruby awkwardly excused herself from the room to leave Yang to have some peace. Ruby rubbed her forehead as she wandered down the halls of the dormitory.

'Convincing Yang to confess her feelings to Blake seems to be out of the question now,' Ruby decided. She had to think of another way to push them together. Getting them together was Yang's only chance. 'If Yang isn't going to ask out Blake, then my only other option…' Ruby thought, '…is to get Blake to ask out Yang." Upon thinking of how to convince the faunus to date the brawler, the answer quickly became clear to Ruby. "I could interrogate Blake and prove that she's still open to romantic relationships. Regardless of sexual attraction, I'm still sure she'd be up for relationships considering the type of novels she reads,' Ruby reasoned. 'Once I prove that, then I'll either have to tell Blake how Yang feels myself, which I don't really like, or I'll manage to convince Blake to ask out Yang without disclosing Yang's side of the story. Then everything will fall into place and Yang will live happily ever after.' With an alternate plan constructed, Ruby headed out of the dormitory to find Blake. If Yang had lost hope, only Blake could restore it.

Ruby walked through the doors of Beacon's grand library several minutes later. The place was a ghost town considering it was the weekend. Such an empty wasteland would be a paradise for any book addict like Blake. Ruby was sure she'd find the faunus here. After passing rows upon rows of books, Ruby reached an open area of tables and chairs and found a single student reading. Blake sat on a large, cushiony chair with her face buried in her novel. One would think she needed reading glasses by how closely she held it.

With a grin, Ruby approached her teammate. "Hey, Blake!" Ruby cheerfully said. Blake looked up from her book, clearly not expecting to be disturbed in her lonely paradise.

Blake:

Blake made no attempt to hide her displeased look as she thought, 'Dear god, can't I do some reading in peace? What could Ruby possibly want from me?' "Hello, Ruby. What are you doing here?" Blake responded.

If Ruby noticed Blake's annoyed tone, she certainly didn't show it. "I just wanted to check in on one of my favorite teammates. How's the book you're reading?" Ruby asked, still as joyful as ever.

Blake was slow to respond, as she was thinking of how to politely tell Ruby to get lost. "The book I'm reading is fascinating actually," Blake answered, "and if you don't mind, I'd really like to get back to it. I haven't had too much free time available since we had that essay due for Oobleck's class." Blake looked up at Ruby once more, but she was surprised to find the cloaked girl's cheerful expression had melted away into one as serious as could be.

"Alright," Ruby started, "I'll go ahead and cut the crap. Blake, I'm calling your bluff." Blake immediately had all of her attention directed at Ruby. Her mind raced to think of the implications of such a statement. Nervously laughing, Blake responded, "W-what are you talking about?"

Ruby lowered her eyebrows, displeased that Blake wasn't catching on. She replied, in a lower tone as to keep the conversation private, "You said that you're asexual, yeah?"

Blake could immediately predict where this was going. 'Yang obviously told Ruby that I was asexual and Ruby didn't buy it so she's trying to confirm it for herself. I hate doing this to Yang, but the story I've started is the best solution. I'll just have to convince Ruby of my supposed sexuality as well.'

"Yes I am," Blake replied, quietly, "please don't go around telling anyone. I'm not exactly-"

"And that was your way of justifying not dating Sun, correct?" Ruby quickly followed up with.

Blake stammered for a moment. She grew slightly nervous as her team leader was hastily digging for more information. "Well yes," Blake returned, "As an asexual, I'm not really into dating anyone, not only Sun."

Blake started to panic as she saw Ruby was slowly growing a smile. She wasn't believing Blake's story for some reason. 'Does she know something I don't?' Blake thought, 'she has no reason not to believe that I'm asexual. I-'

"Your logic is flawed, my dear teammate," Ruby said with a confident grin.

Blake hesitated, "W-What do you mean?"

"Being asexual means you aren't sexually attracted to anyone," Ruby continued. "So unless you believe a relationship is nothing but sex, you should still want to pursue a romantic partner." Blake couldn't fully process what Ruby was saying before the cloaked girl resumed her assault. "It could be possible that you truly aren't interested in romantic relationships and you simply used the term asexual incorrectly, _but _your taste in reading material heavily argues against that. All of this is to say, there's another reason you turned down Sun the other night. Something you've been keeping a secret."

Blake was officially horrified. She felt her face boiling to a blood red from the eminent embarrassment. 'Please don't say what I think you're going to say,' Blake desperately thought. 'I certainly never thought that you of all people would figure me out. I realize you're doing this in hopes of helping Yang, but this won't help anything! I'm begging you Ruby! Don't say that I'm-'

"Blake, are you a lesbian?" Ruby asked, without any hesitation.

Blake stared in disbelief at Ruby, her eyes quickly growing bloodshot. "I-I," Blake scrambled for anything to say. 'She actually figured it out? I never thought anyone would…I hoped no one ever would…! Quickly, I've got to give her a response and shut her down! I've got to put on a strong face and just say no! Insist to her that I'm straight! Just tell her I think Sun's a dumbass and I didn't want to date him.' Blake opened her mouth to speak, but upon seeing the look on Ruby's face, she realized resistance was useless. Ruby seemed to have a sick pleasure in seeing the hesitation Blake was being cursed with. Ruby crossed her arms as the faunus tried to form a response. 'No! It's useless. She's already made up her mind!' Blake thought, pitifully. '_Fuck_.'

Blake lowered her head to the ground. She softly squeaked, "Don't tell anyone…I-"

"Yes!" Ruby exploded, "I knew it! I knew it! Yes!" Ruby started jumping up and down like she'd won the lottery. She'd clearly heard the answer she wanted to hear. The faunus, now a molten red, knew Ruby would relay this information to Yang. There was no way she could let that happen for the sake of preventing a doomed relationship. Ruby calmed herself down eventually and started, "Listen Blake, we need to-"

Ruby was interrupted as Blake suddenly stood up with crazed eyes and firmly gripped her shoulders. Blake glared into her teammate as she quietly ordered, "You cannot tell this to anyone, _especially_ not Yang. You have no idea how difficult this is for me. You couldn't comprehend how-"

"Wait," Ruby snapped, her smile vanishing. "What do mean by _especially not Yang_. Why can't she in particular know about this?"

Blake immediately realized her mistake in her panicked rant. She slowly backed away from Ruby, anticipating the incoming storm.

Ruby glared at the faunus, now fully realizing the extent of information Blake had been not only hiding but also ignoring.

"Oh my god…Y-you already knew that Yang…" Ruby hesitated. She could already tell by Blake's expression that her new suspicion was correct. Blake had already known that Yang liked her. "How the hell could you do this to her?" Ruby demanded. "You're out here just reading while she's miserably reduced to sobbing in our room! You're just letting her suffer? You're perfectly fine with leaving her shattered and heartbroken?"

Looking up at her leader, Blake sighed with her ever growing guilt. She tried to keep her voice steady as she emphasized, "You don't understand…"

Ruby was far from satisfied with the lousy response. "Make me understand then!" Ruby demanded.

"Ruby, I never wanted to hurt Yang," Blake insisted. "That was never my intention and I didn't know about her feelings when I told the story of me being asexual to Sun. I only figured out how she felt yesterday. Believe me, I'm dying on the inside by thinking of the pain she must feel. I'd love to march back to our room, give Yang's feelings a chance, and repair her emotions, but-but…"

Ruby was still fuming, "Well? Why can't you?"

Blake curled back into her seat, with her gaze locked away from Ruby. She trusted Ruby enough to explain her thoughts, but was still going to struggle. The faunus whispered, "I'm terrified, Ruby. I'm terrified of how our society will view me. I already have to hide my true race; hiding my sexuality is yet another burden I have to carry."

Not fully understanding, Ruby responded, "I don't understand what you mean. Why can't you try going on a date with Yang? She's a lesbian; she's not going to judge you for being one."

Blake sighed. "No, that's not the problem," Blake said. "I can't imagine ever being publicly gay. That would give hateful people yet another reason to target me and such a thought keeps me up at night. If we gave a relationship a chance, I wouldn't let Yang and I ever openly be a couple. I would force us to keep it a secret for my own sanity, and a secret relationship would never work. I can already feel the guilt of ignoring our relationship whenever another person was around. I would rather leave Yang the way she is and be good friends than be more than friends and pretend our feelings didn't exist."

Ruby still didn't get Blake's view. "Then don't keep it a secret. Why do you care so much about what others think?" Ruby asked.

Blake shook her head, responding, "You haven't seen how cruel people can be to freaks like me, Ruby. Growing up as a faunus was hell. People glared at me wherever I went, disproving of everything I did merely for me existing. I started wearing this bow so I'd never have to feel that way again. If my sexuality suddenly goes against the norms, then all of the prejudice I've avoided will come spiraling back to me." Blake was relieved to glance up and find Ruby looking back with much more sympathy in her eyes. "I know you probably don't fully understand," Blake shakily continued, "and I hope you never will understand. You're a straight, white human; you're free to be yourself in this world. I-I'm not so lucky."

The two went silent as the thought lingered on. The soft ambience of the library filled the air. Blake desperately hoped Ruby would drop the subject and keep all of this a secret. The anticipation of a response was eating away at Blake.

Finally, Ruby spoke up, "I understand that you're scared, Blake, and I respect your decision - I honestly do." Blake softly smiled with gratitude. "But," Blake's expression snapped away as Ruby continued, "you two can't simply avoid each other. Neither of you have to bring up this topic again, but you're still partners and we're all still a team. Do you understand me?"

Blake nodded. "Yes, I see your point."

"With that being said," Ruby resumed, "I'll keep all of this a secret for you, but in return you have to be a better friend to Yang and start spending way more time with her - starting right now in fact. Let's go back to the room so you two can start hanging out and get past this. Maybe you two can watch a movie or work on homework together."

'S-start spending more time…with…' Blake could barely process the information through all of the problems it contained, but before Blake could fiercely object, Ruby shook her finger, "And before you try to argue, the alternative is me telling all of this to Yang. One way or another, I'm not going to simply leave my sister all alone."

"Wait are you crazy? How would my presence in any way make Yang feel better? All that it would do is remind her of her feelings!" Blake argued. Ruby, however, ignored all of Blake's case as she began to briskly walk away, motioning Blake to follow.

Blake was about to yell after her, but quickly stopped herself. Gritting her teeth, she realized Ruby's advantage – there was no way Blake would continue this argument at a higher volume or with anyone else around. 'So much for respecting my decision. Well, if this is Ruby's plan, I don't really have a choice but to follow it. I don't see what hanging out with the blonde will achieve, but if anything I only hope this won't hurt her further.' Blake reluctantly rose from her seat, picked up her book, and followed the young leader out of the library.

Ruby:

'Holy crap, this is an absolute disaster.' Ruby was making her way back to the dormitory, looking behind her every minute or so to ensure Blake was still trailing her. What exactly to do once they made it back to the dorm was still beyond her though. Ruby's plan was ordered to Blake on the spot; she hadn't really thought it through, it just felt like it was the proper course to take. Ruby truly didn't see any of this coming anyways; she had expected to hear that Blake was a lesbian and then she'd just go convey that information to Yang. Life can never be so simple though.

'I never considered there would be an actual reason for Blake hiding her sexuality,' Ruby thought. 'I sort of just hoped she just failed to mention it since it never came up. I guess I can kind of understand how Yang hates hoping now. Hoping for things to go your way seems to only make it more crushing when life goes in the opposite direction.'

Ruby sighed. She wasn't fully confident in the idea that forcing her two teammates to spend time together would magically resolve all of the distress between them, but she had no other ideas as what to do. 'All that I'm sure of is I'm not going to let myself or Blake simply forget about this and walk away,' Ruby decided. 'Maybe this will make things worse by refreshing the pain Yang is feeling. Maybe this will only drive Yang further away from Blake and the rest of the team…but…'

Ruby glanced back at the faunus behind her. It was almost amusing how she was pouting about the situation. Ruby saw her expression as Blake marched along in a daze. It seemed to Ruby that Blake, consciously or not, agreed to this plan of spending time with Yang. 'I really think Blake could like Yang back,' Ruby thought. 'The only thing standing in the way of their 'Bumblebee' is Blake's fear. Maybe Yang could somehow assure Blake she'd be safe. Maybe Yang's open attitude of being gay will give some courage to Blake. Anything is possible. For Yang's sake, I'm going to keep on hoping even though she's given up.'

The two made their way to the dormitory and eventually stood outside of their room. Ruby stopped for a moment, giving her final thoughts before her plan commenced. 'I'm still the team leader and taking this risk of hurting Yang with my whole 'Bumblebee' plan may not be the most responsible thing to do, but I know I've got to do something. I know little about relationships, but I know in order to make one work, you can't avoid the other person. As leader, I'm going with this plan, as I it feels like the right thing to do. Now I just hope we're not going to walk in and find Yang still crying…'

"Uh Ruby, are you okay?" Blake asked, puzzled.

Ruby turned. "Of course I am," she gleefully replied.

"Then do you want to open the door? We've been standing here for a while…"

"Ah ha ha ha…yeah." She turned the knob of the door and the two entered the dorm room. 'Well, here we go!' Ruby thought.

* * *

**hmm...I realize now my promise that we'd be climbing the emotional roller coaster this chapter may have been inaccurate. This chapter more of just just sets up our ascent for next time...well at least we didn't plunge any further into depression...I hope... Anyways, the first arc doesn't have too much longer and I can't wait to finish it. I'm glad we've gotten this far and can't wait to see how far this'll go. **

**Two other things:**

**Back in chapter 5 once I brought up the stuff of Blake being asexual, and it was pointed out that how I implemented it wasn't entirely accurate to the reality of asexuality. I hope I fixed it up by Ruby pointing out how Blake was wrong and I hope I didn't offend anyone or anything. In fact I actually like the plot point of Blake not fully knowing what asexuality means...can we pretend I did all of that on purpose? ;) ...I didn't...please don't yell at me**

**And also I have a deviantArt where I've done fan art and stuff. If you want to check it out, it's 'Fl00rMaster' just like this account, but if you don't want to then don't. It's America, you have to stand strong against the advertisements! DON'T GO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!**

**Anyways, see you all soon enough for chapter 9. Going to work on it as soon as I post this...**


	9. Chapter 9 - Forget

**The longest chapter thus far. I had an outline and I stuck to it and I am proud of myself. Thank you all again for reading and reviewing. Hope you enjoy :)**

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Yang:

'What the _fuck _are you doing?'

Yang raised her head from her knees, and frantically looked around the room through her watery lenses. She was certain she'd been alone as Ruby had left their dorm room just moments ago and her sister certainly wouldn't be talking like that. Once convinced she was alone in the dorm room, Yang lowered her head once again. 'Great,' she thought. 'Now I'm going crazy and hearing voices.'

'You're not hearing anything, dumbass. You're thinking up all of this!'

Yang brought her head back up and looked around again, again finding no one. Yang came out of her ball and leaned back in her chair, facing the ceiling above. 'Oh, wonderful!' Yang thought, 'I'm going crazy and talking to myself! The mighty Yang Xiao Long has fallen to the level of talking to herself!'

'Bitch, you wish you were talking to yourself. Right now this is the mighty Yang Xiao Long talking to a pathetic girl who's given up everything just because her little crush doesn't love her back. Do you plan on just lying around crying while hordes of demons and criminals roam the world to destroy it? Do you really think you deserve any sympathy while innocent people are terrorized daily? Why don't you stand the hell up and work for all of those crazy adventures you're after? By lying around, crying, you are achieving nothing.'

Normally, such a comment would've driven Yang into further tears, but hearing it from her own mind had the opposite effect. She became conscious of her suppressed thoughts and felt all of her depression violently transform into brutal anger. She hardly noticed her chair starting to steam around her in response to her emotions.

'Yang Xiao Long, what are you doing? You're a huntress in training and you're blowing it,' Yang bitterly told herself. 'The world isn't around to hand things over to you. You can love Blake all you want but the world doesn't have an obligation to make her love you back. You sitting around crying isn't going to change how cruel the world can be, but you getting up off your ass and becoming a huntress can still improve the world for others. That should be reason enough for you get over Blake and start functioning again. You have to get past your feelings for Blake.'

Determined, Yang stood from her desk and marched her way into the bathroom. Taking notice of her burning red eyes and still flustered cheeks in the mirror, she cupped her hands, collecting cold water from the faucet, and washed her face. 'B-but I love her…how can I just forget about that? H-how can I…I can't…' Yang shook away her instinct to shut down again. Breaking down and giving up on life wasn't going to be an option anymore. 'It's not a matter of forgetting how I feel. It's a matter of accepting how Blake feels,' Yang thought. 'I can love her as much as I want to, but if Blake doesn't want to date anyone, then she doesn't have to date anyone. It's not for me to decide any differently. Begging for the universe to be how I want it to be isn't appropriate and won't change anything anyways.'

Yang wiped her face dry and looked at herself in the mirror again. She saw that her eyes were back to their normal, lilac selves, but also became aware of her dreadful appearance, making her look like the personification of death.

'Jeez, just look at me,' Yang scolded herself. 'I'm a total wreck; I have got to pull myself together for everyone's sake. I probably gave Ruby a heart attack earlier by emerging from the bathroom like this.'

Yang proceeded to brush her storm of blond hair to try and fix herself up. After staring at it for a moment, Yang chose not to apply her make up since she wasn't fully confident that she was truly done crying.

Upon exiting the bathroom, satisfied with her improved appearance, Yang glanced at the pile of work ominously stacked next to her desk. Sighing, she decided, 'Nothing will entirely distract me from Blake right now, but I should at least do something productive while I pout.'

Yang sat down and her desk and continued the math problems that she'd started earlier. She always struggled with answering equations and such. Having only one correct answer made it impossible to pretend like she knew what she was doing. She'd much rather be bullshitting an essay for history where anything can be correct as long as you provide support for your answer. Yang found herself tempted to set the mathematics aside to copy Weiss' work later and work on another part of her work now.

'No, damn it, Yang!' Yang cursed herself. 'If I'm going to get over Blake, then I'm going to have to convince more than just myself that I've recovered. I'm going to do the math part now to show the rest of the team that I'm stable enough to work on academics! Seeing the look of worry in Ruby's eyes was horrible. I'm supposed to be the one being worried about and protecting her! I've got to show that I'm strong for her sake.'

Yang focused herself back onto the math problems. 'X squared equals 144…so I need the square root…fuck algebra, I'm getting my calculator!'

Yang slowly worked her way through a half of the worksheets she had. If she was an environmentalist, she'd be truly offended by the amount of papers distributed by her classes. None the less, she was proud of her progress when her teammates finally walked through the door.

Ruby walked through the door, shortly followed by Blake. Yang turned, trying to keep herself calm, thinking, 'Here we go Yang. Show them you have no problems now. You've come to accept your reality.' Consciously making sure to keep a steady voice, Yang said, "Hey guys, how's your day going?"

Ruby hesitated with a look of confusion, but quickly recovered herself to a relieved smile. "It's going great," Ruby replied. "I'm glad to see you brushed your hair. You look much better. Have you been working on all of your missed work?"

"Heck, yeah!" Yang grinned, "I should be able to finish all of it tonight, especially once Weiss shows up to help me. Maybe we can all hang out tomorrow since I'll be free."

Ruby was still slow to respond. It was clear how surprised she was the find Yang up and about. "Sounds like a plan to me," she finally replied with a grin. Blake stepped to the side and excused herself to use the bathroom, leaving the sisters alone. Yang could tell by Ruby's silence that she was still worried.

"Hey, I'm sorry that I yelled at you earlier," Yang finally said.

Ruby looked back with a shocked expression. "What? No!" Ruby insisted, 'It's fine Yang. I know you're having a difficult time; I just…look Yang, don't pretend you're perfectly fine if you're not. You don't owe me, or the rest of the team for that matter, anything. Our training can wait until you're feeling better.'

Sighing, Yang replied, "I'm not pretending, Ruby. I'm done crying now." Yang wasn't sure of herself before, but the concern of her sister had convinced. With a quieter tone, she continued, 'I've accepted that I can't be with Blake. I'm going to get to a stable set of mind for not only the team, but for all the people we need to help as huntresses.'

Yang was satisfied with her answer, but saw Ruby's expression was lacking the same closure.

"What's wrong? Honestly Ruby, I'm okay with this. Me crying any longer isn't going to help anything; it will only hurt myself more."

"Yeah…just…" Ruby couldn't meet Yang's eyes now. "It's great that you can talk without breaking down, but maybe don't be so final in accepting the way things are…in Blake being asexual…"

Before Yang could question what Ruby meant by that, Blake reentered the room. Ruby immediately turned away and directed her gaze down to her scroll. 'Does Ruby know something I don't?' Yang pondered, '…Nah, she's probably still just worried about me. Coming to terms with reality as suddenly as I have could be causation for concern. I'm sure she'll come around soon.'

As Yang raised her pencil and dove back into her work, to her surprise, Blake came to her side, looking at her work over her shoulder. Yang could feel her own face heat up and immediately grew angry about it. 'Gah, what are you doing Blake? Shouldn't you be reading one of your novels and being anti-social?' Blake's lingering presence quickly became a strain on Yang's mind as her pencil strokes quickly became slower and skewed. 'Focus. I've got to learn to function with Blake being around. This is something we'll just have to get used to.'

"So, Yang," Blake started to Yang's horror, "Do you need some help doing the packet for Professor Oobleck's class? I see that's the only part of your work that you haven't started yet. I'd guess that it's causing you problems if you actually chose to do math of all things before it."

'Oh god.' Yang tried to think of what to say. Blake's monotone voice made it hard to interpret if she actually wanted to help or was just trying to be supportive given how depressed Yang had been acting. She didn't dare look up to the golden eyes beside her. "T-thanks, but I think I'm okay," Yang answered. "I don't want to be a chore and drag you away from your book."

"It's not a problem," Blake responded with slight resentment, "Let's just say I have an obligation to take a break from reading anyways." Yang didn't notice Blake glare at Ruby and Ruby shrug innocently in return. "Besides, I've already read way ahead in our chapters," Blake added. "You'd be helping me out too with some review."

"Well," Yang reluctantly replied, "if you insist."

As Blake pulled up another chair to Yang's side, Ruby started making her way to the dorm's exit. Blake immediately caught onto Ruby's escape, and demanded, "Where are you going?" Yang was surprised by the sudden level of panic in Blake's voice.

"I got a message from Pyrrha. Apparently team JNPR needs someone to spar against Jaune in the gym, so I'm going to fill that role. Is there a problem?" Ruby baited.

'Oh great she's leaving us alone. That's exactly what I need right now. Thank you my bright, little flower of a sister,' Yang bitterly thought. "N-no, it's fine I suppose," Blake muttered. Yang was too embarrassed herself to notice how red Blake's face was growing as well.

Ruby smirked, "Have fun studying, I'll be back in a few hours. See you!" The slam of the door behind the cloaked girl echoed through the now silent dorm room.

'Stay calm. I've just got avoid naughty thoughts and focus on doing this school work. It'll be just like studying with Weiss.' As Yang opened the first page of Oobleck's packet, she immediately needed to look up the answer to the first question. She glanced around her desk and suddenly realized her history textbook was nowhere to be found.

Turning towards Blake, "H-hey, have you…uh...guh-" Yang stammered. She quickly lost herself in Blake's golden eyes. Confused, Blake asked, "What?"

'New rule – no eye contact. It'll be better to be slightly rude than to be completely incapable of speech. As Yang broke the stare and locked her sights back onto her paper, she repeated herself, much louder than anticipated, "Have you seen my history textbook? It seems to be missing from my desk!"

Blake leaned slightly away in response to the sudden jump in volume. 'Keep it cool Yang! You aren't convincing anyone that you're sane right now!' she thought. Blake stood up and walked over to Weiss' desk stating, "Yes, you left it in Professor Port's class yesterday when you bolted out of the room." Blake raised the textbook out of the pile of Weiss' supplies. "Lucky for you, Weiss went by and picked it up while we were all looking for you…" The two grew awkwardly quiet as they remembered the previous day's events.

"A-anyways," Yang managed, "should we get to work, then?"

"Y-yeah, of course," Blake quickly replied as she brought Yang's textbook and her own notes back to Yang's desk. As they worked, Yang immediately never wanted to work with Weiss again. Blake's calm, collected voice made all of the information much easier to absorb compared to Weiss' uptight attitude towards every question Yang asked. 'You know…study all the time as teammates though…' Yang clarified to herself.

They trudged through the problems. "So question twenty-five – 'What were the lasting effects of the Grimm Massacre?'" Yang eventually read. "It just led to more military spending from Vale for expeditions outside of the kingdoms right? In order to make sure scouts wouldn't enter hostile territory without the right equipment?"

"Yes…" Blake trailed on, clearly indicating there was more to the answer. Yang instinctively reached for her textbook, but Blake quickly intercepted her hand and set it gently back to the desk's surface. Yang tried not to think about the subtle warmth of Blake's touch. "You've gone three questions now without cheating; you're not giving up now."

Yang groaned, "It's not cheating! Oobleck encouraged us to use any and all of our notes and resources." Blake nodded in agreement. "Yes," she replied, "But you're not going to have the book on our next test so you may as well practice now. Here, think more about _where_ the Massacre happened and _who_ it happened to."

Taking a moment to process the hint, Yang slowly replied, "The expedition force was caught out west of Atlas...oh!" Yang exclaimed. "That's right! Nearly a whole military unit from Vale was wiped out in a sector Atlas insisted had a minimal presence of grimm. The horrible inaccuracy of their information caused conflict between Vale and Atlas. That tension still affects us today and almost could've led to a war."

Blake smiled approvingly and applauded Yang's correct answer. Yang grinned as she scribbled what she had said onto her paper. "So how much more of the packet do we have left?" Blake asked.

Yang glanced at the clock, noticing it had already been more than an hour. "Uh," Yang muttered, as she shuffled through the sheets of homework, "That was the last of the free response. The rest of the work is just multiple choice…" Yang paused. She didn't want to hold Blake away from her books anymore. Yang assumed Blake was only helping her out because of the recent emotional disaster.

"I'm sure I can manage the rest on my own, or I can just copy off of Weiss later. We can take a break," Yang said nervously. "You don't have to waste your time with me anymore." Yang immediately regretted how she sounded.

Blake chuckled as she moved her chair back, "It's really no problem, Yang. Besides, this has been really fun. We can do this more often if you don't think reviewing with Weiss is enough." 'Oh how I'd love that. I don't think I could express how amazing that would be even if I wanted to,' Yang thought.

"Well, maybe…I guess we'll see," Yang replied, desperately trying to hide how great of an idea she thought it was.

"So…" Blake started after a long pause, "Are you just going to take a nap now? I imagine you're still exhausted. I'm sure you'd earned it after working for a few hours."

"Nah…" Yang replied, "I think I'll just hang out. I don't feel like going out and about just yet, but my I've done enough sleeping for now." 'And I'd rather not risk mumbling your name in my sleep while you're fully conscious of me,' Yang reasoned.

"Hmm," Blake responded as she went over and searched through her belongings on her shelf. "In that case," Blake said, "Have you heard of the 'Shadows Gather' series?"

'Oh no she's going to recommend a book to me. ' "Yes…" Yang replied hesitantly, "I recall you talking about it last semester."

Blake nodded as she stepped away from her shelf with no doubt a book behind her back. "It's about a faunus detective who disguises himself as a human, just like how I do. He goes around solving mysteries as a detective and slowly uncovers a corrupt government network. Anyways, I just finished the sixth book and…" Blake faltered as she noticed the poorly executed, forced smile of Yang. She couldn't help but laugh in response.

"Chill out Yang, I'm not suggesting you to read them," Blake assured as she revealed what she was holding. "I'm suggesting we can watch the movie. They had the one based off the first book for rent in the library, so I thought 'Why not?'"

Yang's mind began to break down at the sight of the movie case. 'Blake isn't supposed to like movies…especially ones based off of books. Is my life a lie? Oh god, I'm losing it!'

"Hey!" Yang snapped back to reality from Blake's stern interruption. "Is that a yes?" Blake asked, "If not, that's fine. I'm going to watch it myself on my laptop one way or another though…"

"N-no! It sounds cool," Yang insisted, "I'm just surprised; I thought you hated movie adaptations."

"Well, yeah. Of course I do. They suck," Blake replied with her arms extended to the side to emphasize how obvious the fact should be. Yang wasn't following though. Blake decided she should elaborate, "I hate how inaccurate and unfaithful the movie industry is to all of my favorite stories, but that doesn't mean I can't still enjoy watching their horrible work and point out at every mistake they make. If anything, it makes the books better for me."

"Huh," Yang replied, "Never thought of it that way. Well sure, let's ridicule away!"

Blake lifted her laptop from her desk and leaped onto her top bunk with it. She inserted the disk and leaned back onto her pillow with the laptop at her feet as the built in trailers began running. Yang stood awkwardly by, not sure how to follow.

"Uh…do you want us both to sit up there…?" Yang quietly asked.

Blake seemed confused but then suddenly realized what Yang meant. "Oh, no…sorry! Gah!" Blake said. "It's a force of habit. This is how I always watch stuff on my laptop and…uh…here I'll move it down to the desk. We can just sit there-"

"No! It's fine!" Yang blurted out – speaking on impulse.

"W-what?" Blake asked. ''What' is correct,' Yang thought to herself. 'What the hell am I doing?'

"If you're comfortable up here, then it's fine. There's no reason for us to sit in those clunky wooden chairs anymore if you don't want to," Yang answered. 'Has the thought of lying next to Blake on her bed actually crippled my control over my own tongue? Am I that desperate right now?'

"W-well…" Blake muttered. She suddenly shook away her doubt and simply responded, "Sounds like a plan then. Let's just watch the movie."

'Treating it as a problem was awkward, but actually doing this feels even more awkward,' Yang thought. 'Man do I wish I could just shut myself up one of these days.' None the less, Yang climbed onto the bunk next to Blake. They weren't sitting any closer than they had been only minutes ago at the desk, but to Yang it felt entirely different and entirely too close not be thought of every second.

'I'm supposed to be getting over her,' Yang thought to herself. 'I don't think this situation is helping at all…You know what, no! Blake and I are teammates; we're good friends. It is perfectly acceptable for us sit here and watch this movie together. This situation is fine. I am completely stable right now. Let's just watch this movie. We've just got to focus! I can do this; I-'

"They've already mispronounced the lead character's name," Blake stated, suddenly interrupting Yang's mental rambling.

"W-wait what?" Yang muttered, not knowing what was going on. She suddenly realized the actual movie had started.

Blake repeated herself, "The main character's name is 'Locksher', but his first client is pronouncing the 'o' as a 'u'. That wasn't a plot point in the book, this is just poor acting. Not to mention his first client was specifically wearing a blood red shirt in this scene. That was significant symbolism that the director chose to simply ignore."

Yang was impressed; she hadn't realized how serious Blake would be about finding every last detail out of place. Blake noticed Yang's silent reaction and laughed, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry," she said, "I kind of take this way too seriously. I'll probably be commentating the entire time."

'Oh so in other words, I can't zone out in the movie. I'm going to have to talk to you the entire time._ Great_,' Yang thought. "That's fine. I probably won't understand what's going on otherwise," Yang replied.

Blake delivered as promised as the movie crept on. Yang heard in exquisite detail exactly what was happening in every scene of the movie and even more so, what was supposed to be happening. She was by no means unhappy with this. Blake's insight and clever remarks only made the movie more enjoyable to watch. Yang was just upset that during the whole time, she was thinking about the faunus sitting next to her. The tension Yang felt kept her heart rate in the sky as she made every effort to keep her hyperventilating quiet.

'Why the heck has she been so nice to me today? Is she really just forcing herself to take a break from reading?' Yang wondered. 'Is the universe just being a dick to me again by having Blake act like this right after I've pledged to get over her? Oh my god…no…what if the universe is having mercy and is showing me a still have a chance with her…?'

Yang's gaze panned to the beautiful girl beside her, with her eyes glued to the screen still rambling about horrible script writing and crappy special effects. Learning about hobby of the faunus – watching movies just to tear them apart – had felt like a shot of satisfaction earlier. Yang was reminded of her long lived desire to open up her anti-social teammate. An image of the two together vividly illustrated itself as Yang's vision blurred from reality.

'No…' Yang thought. She caught herself from her day-dreaming and snapped herself back. 'Don't get your fucking hopes again, lovebird,' Yang angrily told herself. 'The sooner you accept the way things are, the better. Hoping is just going to raise you up and drop you twice the distance.'

"Hey, did you hear me?" Blake's voice rattled Yang's senses.

Yang jolted as she realized Blake was speaking. "Uh…no…I uh," Yang muttered, guiltily for not paying attention as she tried to avoid Blake's golden gaze.

Blake chuckled, "Don't worry, I'm pretty zoned out right now too. This movie is far more disappointing than I had anticipated. The 'Ultimate Hunters' movie I just saw was great by comparison. I mean, this scene playing right now wasn't anywhere in the book." Blake leaned further back onto her pillow. "Wake me when this scene is over," Blake joked, "It doesn't deserve recognition of existing."

Yang laughed in response, mainly glad that Blake hadn't questioned why Yang was zoned out.

Yang returned her to attention back to the laptop at beyond her feet. Due to Blake's silent protest, Yang heard the characters talking for the first time. Blake was exaggerating just how offensive and atrocious the movie was, but Yang could agree that there was plenty of room for improvement.

As the movie dragged on, Yang actually started wanting to read the book. She could tell that there were plenty of details she wasn't noticing or simply weren't shown that the main character was effortlessly picking out and recalling later. Without Blake's commentary, Yang had no clue what so ever as to what was going on. She was about to nudge Blake and ask, but suddenly a fight scene began and Yang lost any need for a plot.

The epic scene lasted several minutes, and Yang enjoyed every last bit off it as the detective knocked goon after goon down, racing through a sewer to save his friend. The detective eventually captured the lead villain, saved his friend, and started a monologue about what being a hero 'truly means'– the usual movie crap. Yang lost interest as the movie started to wrap itself up. She glanced to the clock on the wall which indicated it had almost been two hours.

Yang suddenly felt a light pressure on her shoulder. She tilted her head down and was horrified to see a mess of black hair weighted against her. From that and the soft sound Blake's breathing, Yang realized Blake was asleep, and likely had been for the latest parts of the movie.

'Oh my god,' Yang cursed, 'she is so fucking adorable. I would literally give anything to cuddle her right now like a little kitten. Why the fuck is this happening me? Quit testing me universe! I said I'm getting over her, and I will! Tempting me is futile; all it shall accomplish is get me pissed! I'm going to punch a wall down if I have to keep dealing with this level of cuteness from her!'

Yang considered her options. All of them were likely to end awkwardly whether it be to wake Blake up or try to escape from under her. Yang decided to at least stick it out as a pillow until the end of the movie. Unfortunately her limbs quickly grew stiff from her inability to adjust herself. All she wanted was to stand up and stretch as she sat agonizingly still, trying to ignore the fresh scent of Blake's shampoo swarming her senses.

Eventually the credits started to roll, and Yang finally decided she had to escape. She willed her muscles to slowly move out from under the slumbering faunus, but they refused to respond. Yang couldn't decide if she was terrified of the awkwardness of Blake abruptly awaking or if she simply didn't want to stop Blake from cuddling against her.

Before Yang could build up the courage to leave or stay, the door to the room suddenly creaked open, revealing a hooded girl walking through. 'Oh here we go,' Yang thought in response to her sister's entrance.

"Hey, guys! I'm back! Do you guys-" Ruby paused her yelling as she saw the situation of her two teammates. Miraculously through all the noise, Blake was still asleep on Yang's shoulder. She immediately dashed over, grinning ear to ear, "I thought you two were studying. Did you get her off track?"

"Ha ha," Yang said, now encouraged to move out of her predicament. She hastily replaced her shoulder with a pillow and gently set Blake's head down. "It was her idea to watch a movie," Yang explained, quietly, "the other seating arrangement was in the crappy wooden chairs so we sat up there…" Yang couldn't hold a sentence with Ruby's expression beaming at her. Ruby was unsettlingly happy about this situation.

"Don't get any ideas Ruby. I'm not making any moves," Yang insisted.

"Oh of course not," Ruby said, with full sincerity, "I honestly believe you. I honestly believe that _you_, yourself didn't make any attempt to make a move on Blake."

Yang nodded in response, unsure how to take what her sister was saying. Suddenly Yang's eyes went wide with a sudden realization.

Curious, Ruby asked, "What's wrong?"

"I just sat through a two hour movie," Yang said.

"Yes…and?" Ruby continued.

"I have to pee!" Yang demanded as she bolted past her sister and slammed the bathroom door behind her. Ruby burst into laughter in response to her sister's exit.

Ruby:

'Well there's Yang for you. She's always on point,' Ruby happily thought. 'I'm glad my idea to push them together worked out as well as it did. This probably would've been a wreck if Yang hadn't suddenly perked up, and really _should _have been a wreck. I don't fully believe that Yang is over and Blake and for Blake's sake I hope she's not...'

Ruby smirked as she glanced over at the sleeping girl dressed in black. She walked over and hovered her head over Blake's ear.

"I've already figured out another plan for tomorrow. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am," Ruby whispered to the faunus, "By the way, it might work on Yang since she's oblivious, but next time you pretend to be asleep, quit moving your ears around to hear everything. Your bow has been shaking ever since I walked in."

Ruby patted Blake on the back and stepped away, pleased with how still Blake's bow had suddenly become.

* * *

**Emotional roller coaster...we're finally climbing it. Oh my god it's so much more enjoyable to write happy stuff. I fucking love happy stuff. Why can't a story be good without conflict and just be happy stuff? I mean then it doesn't relate to real life as well and then the story doesn't feel like it matters, but still! Anyways, I'm glad I got this out much faster than the last. Next chapter should be out soon, but no promises. I have exams starting soon and those are sadly in more dire need of attention. None the less, thanks again for all the support, means the world :)**


	10. Chapter 10 - Forever Fall

**Here's the next chapter, I won't make you wait any longer, hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

Blake:

'What the hell was that? What in all of Remnant have I started?'

Blake threw her book to her side, officially accepting that no book was going to distract her anymore. She was lying in her bed, awake, long after her surrounding teammates had drifted off. She was hoping to pass out, thinking about epic detective stories, rather than staying up all night trying to figure out what her emotions were doing. However, her clock had struck two and her hope for that plan had been lost.

'What happened today?' Blake desperately thought. 'Earlier, I had been certain the best course of action was to ignore the problem and let Yang move on. I knew it wasn't going to be easy; I felt like shit knowing that my lie caused her so much pain, but I still believed I was protecting her from further emotional agony by us becoming a couple and then me refusing to acknowledge it.'

Blake's hands pressed against her forehead as she tried to think through what had happened, 'Today all of that seemed to change. My fear of judgement and hate from everyone around me seemed to disappear. Every god damn time that foolish blonde looked at me…I felt…free. Somehow Yang's presence made me feel secure. Hanging out with her had felt so simple, like there wasn't a care to be had in the world.

Has that always been there? Is she the reason I've been able to function at this academy without breaking down and fleeing from my phobia? Either way, today I've suddenly noticed this phenomena and something further. I feel more than just safe in regard to Yang…could I lov-?'

Blake clenched her jaw, holding back her thoughts. 'Do I actually believe I can just drop that word? The gravity behind that word could prove fatal to our partnership and our team. Regardless of how I feel, we could never be together. There's no way I'm going to force Yang into a secret relationship that neither of us could disclose merely because I'm too big of a coward to be openly gay. I refuse to be that selfish. I can't break down just because Ruby successfully forced us to hang out; I have to stay strong.'

Blake thought she had settled it, but her confidence was quickly dissolved. Her mind started to wander back to earlier that day. She remembered her impulse to pretend she was still asleep as she awoke cuddled up to Yang's soft form. She remembered the utter bliss she experienced – not having a care in the world, the simple warmth of Yang embracing her.

Exhausted and confused, the faunus desperately clenched her eyelids shut in hopes to find sanctuary in slumber, however, her still hyper-sensitive cat ears forced her to lock onto every noise around her. As she suddenly picked up on the soothing breaths of the teammate in the bunk under her, she felt her own chest rise and fall in sync. Blake started purposely breathing at her own, separate time intervals in defiance.

'What am I doing? No one could possibly act as ridiculous as I am,' Blake thought.

Blake had no idea how or when she managed to fall asleep, but it was quickly interrupted by a high pitched, blaring noise. She groaned, feeling cheated out of a rest she desperately needed.

"Good morning, team RWBY!" Ruby yelled, as if her whistle hadn't already awoken everyone. The team sat up groggily, all glaring at their mischievous leader who was already fully dressed and prepared for the day.

"It's still the weekend, you dunce," Weiss muttered as she rubbed her eyes. "Why the heck have you woken us?"

Ruby shook her head. "You should remember, Princess," Ruby teased, "You and I planned it out yesterday."

'Oh god, I do not like the sound of that,' Blake thought, dreading what was coming as her brain was processing the fact that she was awake.

Weiss suddenly perked up, remembering the day's planned events. "Oh, of course!" she exclaimed. Weiss leapt off of the bed and stood before her teammates. "Do you all remember the project for Port's class we were assigned last week, where we needed to design and build an ursa trap?" Weiss was met with nods.

"Well I've finished all of the designs for it and now we simply need to collect the materials and build it-"

"And we can't do that at a normal time of day?" Yang mumbled, still trying to adjust her eyes to being open.

"You should remember, Yang. It was your idea to use red sap as the bait of the trap, so we need to go into Forever Fall to gather some. We need to leave early to make sure we leave long before the grimm become active."

Yang collapsed back onto her pillow. "That project's not due for a month. I vote we sleep today and do the project a month from now."

"I think I second that," Blake muttered.

Weiss scowled, "You all are free to procrastinate all you want on your normal school work, but I refuse to let our group project be left to rot until the day before it's due. You all agreed to work with me, so we're going to work on it right now!"

"C'mon, Yang," Ruby encouraged, "You even said yourself yesterday that we should spend the day hanging out as a team. It would be great for us all to get out of this crummy room for a while."

"F-fine…" Yang grumbled as she pried herself away from her bed.

Blake groggily stood up as well, asking, "Wait, are we going to spend the whole day out there? Gathering some sap shouldn't take that long."

Ruby turned and answered with a wink, "Don't worry, Blake. It's all planned out."

'Oh no,' Blake thought helplessly, 'What does that mean?'

"I'm going to take a shower," Weiss announced. "The rest of you better be packed up and ready to leave by the time I come out." She proceeded out of the room as Ruby said, "I'll be right back as well. I need to pick some stuff up before we go. Meet you at the front gate." With a smirk, Ruby pranced into the dorm hallway, leaving the remaining partners alone.

Blake immediately felt her rush of thoughts from yesterday come flooding back. She tried to block out the very concept of Yang and her existing in the same room together as she hastily packed supplies and ammunition she'd likely need for the trip into Forever Fall.

"So," Yang started, clearly eager to end the silence, "what do think Ruby has planned? She seemed pretty hyped about it."

Blake kept her eyes locked on her packing, still unsure how to regard Yang. "It's probably nothing," Blake lied. She had a very clear idea as to what Ruby was up to, but certainly wasn't going to discuss the theory with the blonde. Ruby was likely to pull something similar to yesterday and make the pair spend a bunch of close time together. Blake normally wouldn't mind, but with the possible feelings for Yang, Blake was far less than excited about the day ahead of them. "I wouldn't worry."

Yang scoffed at the idea. "Oh I'm far from worried. I can handle whatever Ruby's prepared for us. I'm just curious as to why she's so excited for it. She's never that adamant about our usual field trips unless a fight is guaranteed. Could there be something else she's up to?"

Yang let the thought linger as she waited for Blake to respond, but after a lengthy silence from the faunus, she took the hint and let the conversation die off. Yang went back to equipping Ember Celica and packing supplies. Blake felt guilty for rudely dissolving the conversation, but Blake was far more concerned with shutting herself up rather than being polite.

'What if I actually have feelings for her - no. No! I'm going to act like a proper teammate today and not think of horrible ways to ruin friendships and tear apart teams. It's time to focus on collecting red sap and killing anything we encounter.'

Once Weiss emerged, dressed for the day, the trio hefted their supplies and marched out of the dorm to collect their leader and head to the red forest. Upon reaching the gates of the academy, they saw Ruby was standing there as expected. To her side she carried a large basket; however, Yang caught the aroma of the basket long before she saw it.

"You've brought food. I love you. You have my support for the project now, Weiss," Yang declared as she snatched the basket away and gawked at the contents.

"Food?" Weiss asked Ruby with disbelief, "That's all it takes?"

Ruby laughed as she took the basket back from Yang before the blonde could dive in, "Yup, that's pretty much it. I figured the forest would be a lovely spot for a picnic so I packed us some sandwiches, and pizza among other things."

"W-wait," Weiss replied, "freshly cooked food like that very well may attract grim in the forest."

Ruby smirked, "Indeed it might! Isn't it great?" Ruby patted Crescent Rose as if the weapon would be excited too.

"No, that's not great!" Weiss shouted, "The point of this expedition is to safely gather the resources we need without getting mauled to death by the wildlife! Are you crazy?"

Blake sighed, "To be fair," she said, "few grimm will be active at this hour and another scent in the forest isn't going to attract anymore grim than our natural scents will anyway."

"Plus, all of that red sap we'll be collecting will be attracting the beasts anyways," Yang added.

Groaning, Weiss finally submitted, "Fine, let's just get a move on already. We're burning daylight." Weiss turned and started their march through the gates. Ruby and Yang followed right behind, anxiously awaiting the fun day ahead of them while Blake stayed far back, dreading the events to come.

It had felt like hours, but the team finally arrived at the Forest of Forever Fall after a painfully long walk out of the city. Despite the deep shaded forest now around them, glistening in the mid-day sunlight, the four blatantly ignored the beauty and collapsed onto the first clearing they spotted. Yang fell face-first into the red grass muttering something about sleep.

"Well," Weiss said, still standing among her sitting teammates, "We still have work to do. We didn't just come out here for napping. Let's go!" Groaning, they slowly stood back up.

"How do we get the sap again?" Ruby asked as she lifted a mountain of jars from her bag.

"Try using the tree tap to any one of the trees around here. You'd remember how to do this if you actually had helped during the last time we were out here last semester," Weiss replied, raising a tree tap from their supplies.

"I helped…just not with the actual tree tapping part," Ruby mumbled.

Yang chuckled, "Sounds about what I helped with as well. All I did was carry the jars."

Rolling her eyes, Weiss said, "With the amount of sap we'll need to properly test our project, we'll all need to help carry it back today. Therefore, we all will be helping with gathering the sap as well."

Ruby nodded. "That sounds fair." she said, "How about Weiss teaches me how to get the sap and Blake can teach Yang?"

"Wait what?" Blake asked, hardly paying attention to the conversation as she unpacked.

"Sounds perfect," Weiss replied, "Let's get to work then. The sooner we get all of these jars filled, the sooner you all can eat the food we've essentially risked our lives for."

"Yes ma'am!","Heck yes!" Ruby and Yang each said simultaneously, now fully motivated.

"Wait…what?" Blake repeated, still confused. Yang dashed over with a tree tap in hand, grabbed Blake by the arm, and dragged them both to the closest tree.

"Quick," Yang insisted as she threw their supplies to the ground, "teach me how to use this tree thing. The faster we gather some red sap, the sooner I can eat that pizza!"

Blake slowly started to infer what had happened. She glanced over and saw Ruby was being given the same lesson from Weiss. As their eyes met for a split second, Ruby grinned and replied with a wink. 'Oh, this is brilliant,' Blake thought. 'Even though we're in a full group, Ruby has still managed to split Yang and I off. Could she have actually planned this all out? Damn – if so then Ruby is far cleverer than I would've imagined.'

Blake turned back to the blonde, who was anxiously awaiting instruction. Sighing, Blake muttered, "All right, let's get started."

Blake raised the tree tap and easily demonstrated the task of driving it into the side of the forest tree. Yang mimicked and after a minute or two, she too had perfectly used the tap. It wasn't much of a lesson, but the job wasn't as complicated as Weiss had let on. The rest of the job now was simply waiting for the jars to fill until it was time to move the next empty jar under the sap flooding spout.

As the two sat in the grass against the towering trees, their other group members could be heard bickering. Apparently Ruby wasn't as fast to learn and Weiss wasn't as good of a teacher. Blake grinned, satisfied with the synergy she and her partner maintained. They were easily able to work together. 'I think Yang and I, and the team for that matter, will be just fine,' Blake thought to herself. 'Once we're past this weird little chapter, we'll continue to be the best huntresses in training we can be. Yang will forget about her feelings that have formed and whatever route my own heart is taking will be properly stopped in its tracks.' Blake knew she should be satisfied with the thought, but something still felt _wrong_.

"Blake? Did you hear me?"

Blake's eyes quickly darted to her partner in response to Yang's sudden question.

"N-no," she muttered, "What is it?"

Yang chuckled, clearly amused by Blake's absent attention, "I said it's really beautiful out here. We should all come out to the forest more often, especially if Ruby gets us food every time…are we eating soon? Damn am I hungry."

Blake tried to form an answer. She was thoroughly attempting to state they'd all likely eat soon enough, but only a slight squeaking noise passed her lips. 'Shit,' Blake thought, 'actually talking directly to her is an entirely different ordeal. The forest around the blonde is hardly the most beautiful thing here and I can barely manage to look at her without feeling my chest flutter. Damn it! No matter how well we can work together, nothing's going to get fixed if I can't even make eye contact with the girl!'

Without lifting her gaze, Blake awkwardly nodded in reply to Yang. She could feel herself shudder; she really missed being the cold and collected faunus she'd managed to present herself to be up to a day ago.

"You okay, Blake?" Yang asked with subtle concern as she leaned slightly towards the faunus. "You've been really quiet – even for you."

Blake looked back up, instantly in attempt to avoid suspicion of her contemplations. "Of course I am!" Blake responded a bit too forcefully. The two's eyes caught each other. The genuine concern behind those intoxicating lilac irises further strained Blake's chest. Her eyelids reflexively sealed shut as her head directed itself back towards the ground.

'God damn it, Blake!' Blake yelled in her head, 'You're supposed to be helping all of us get past this! Just talk to her normally! Convincing her that something is wrong is the last thing we need. Sympathy and concern is far from a beneficial contribution to Yang's mental state. If I keep this up, she'll never be able to move on and find happiness elsewhere!'

Yang scooted herself ever closer along the bark of the crimson tree to the clearly troubled faunus, but she didn't get a chance to press further questions.

"Heck yeah!" Ruby shouted from across the clearing, "I did it! Now we can sit back and eat while the taps do the rest of the work!"

"You dolt!" Weiss yelled in response, "We still have way more jars to fill! Just because it took tons of effort to start getting the sap, that doesn't mean we can just slack off and abandon our work! Shut your stomach up and get back over here!" However, Ruby had already pranced away to snatch the basket she'd left on the ground in the center of the clearing. The red-clad girl proceeded to unpack the contents of the basket and spread out a grand blanket over the grassy patches. Despite Weiss' continued scolding and yelling, Ruby continued her defiant actions – completely blocking out the princess.

Yang was surprised at her sister's actions and regarded them with a rather impressed nod of the head. Ruby giggled as Weiss' anger only built further. "Don't worry, girls," Ruby said to her other teammates in a lower tone, "She'll be out of here as happy as can be any second now. I really hate having to this, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it."

Blake glared at their team leader with a strong mix of anger and fear, sharply asking, "What do you mean?" Rather than giving an answer, Ruby merely winked and continued laying out the picnic. Despite the pure charm of Ruby's actions, Blake was wholly unamused – terrified by what Ruby was up to.

'Weiss will be out of here? Wasn't her plan was just to make Yang and I work together? Is she up to more?' Blake worriedly wondered.

Suddenly Weiss' incessant scolding came to a halt as she was silenced by the ringing of her scroll. Blake saw a giant smirk grow on Ruby's face as Weiss paused her rant and picked up the incoming call. Blake also saw a drastic shift in Weiss' expression as she raised her scroll to her ear – was that a smile?

"H-hey, what's up?" Weiss nervously said into her scroll, every ounce of anger gone from her voice. "No, nothing – nothing at all," Weiss continued. "Oh, that would be perfect! Yeah, yeah…okay see you then!" Weiss hung up her scroll and frantically began collecting the filled jars, placing them in her pack.

"Wait, who was-?" Yang tried to ask.

"There was a little emergency, I need to get back to Beacon _right away_," Weiss insisted as she blocked out the question. 'Emergency?' Blake thought. 'If there was an emergency, Weiss would be pissed, not fluttery eyed. I don't think I've ever seen the girl smile like this.'

"Wait, wait, wait, princess," Yang demanded, "You're the one who was freaking out about getting attacked by grimm and now you're going to try and make it back all by yourself? Are you-?"

"Don't worry!" Ruby interrupted, "I'll escort her safely out!" By this time Ruby had perfectly laid out the picnic food. Blake distinctly noticed the count of only two plates set out on the blanket and a tiny rose in a vase placed between them. 'Oh god damn it, Ruby,' Blake thought.

"Wait!" Blake yelled as Weiss and Ruby started leaving the clearing, somehow already entirely packed. "You only took a third of the jars, do you expect Yang and I to lug the rest of them back? And Weiss, are you really putting your grade in our hands? What happens if we don't collect the sap correctly or we don't gather enough of it? Don't you want to supervise or something?"

Weiss didn't even turn back, still dreamily smiling, "Yeah, sure, whatever, Blake."

'No, this can't be happening,' Blake frantically thought, 'Don't leave me to a romantic picnic alone with Yang in a god damn beautiful forest clearing. '

Blake darted forward and grabbed Ruby's arm, preventing her from walking any further away. "Ruby!" Blake hissed.

Ruby returned a monumental grin in response, leaving nothing but pure innocence in her wide, gray eyes, "Yeeesss, Blake?"

"I-I…you…ugh," Blake struggled helplessly. She wanted to beg Ruby and Weiss to stay here. She wanted to make Ruby understand how she desperately wanted to avoid toying with Yang's emotions any further. There were so many things that needed to be said to avoid the imminent situation with Yang, but with Yang standing right there, Blake was mute. Ruby clearly knew this as she innocently waited for what Blake had to say.

Blake sighed. "How did you even manage this?" She asked.

Ruby laughed and simply replied, "'I have my ways.'" With that Ruby turned and ran forward to catch up with the heiress. "See you guys back at Beacon!" Ruby yelled back.

As the two disappeared into the depths of the forest, Blake was officially left alone with Yang. She turned to see the cause of her major dilemma majestically scarfing down a slice of pizza and chugging a can of soda. 'Beautiful,' was somehow the first word that came to Blake's head.

Reluctantly, Blake approached and sat upon the picnic blanket directly across from Yang. Reaching into the basket, Blake realized Ruby really did go all out. Aside from the full cheese pizza Yang had already found, there were several sandwiches – all notably tuna, some various fruits, several cans of soda and bottles of water, and finally an apple pie. As angry as she was becoming with Ruby, Blake couldn't help but appreciate the genuine effort being put into this.

Blake picked up out one the sandwiches, desperate to have an excuse not to talk, and sunk a giant bite into it. She immediately heard Yang chuckling across from her.

"I see that you were hungry to," Yang laughed, "I can't believe those two just up and left this all behind. I think Weiss literally just went crazy back there. Who the heck called her?"

Despite her first bite already swallowed and her mouth empty, Blake offered no vocal response to Yang as she kept her eyes wandering around the natural scenery – trying to land anywhere but on the blonde.

As she continued eating in silence, Blake could feel Yang's gaze burning into her.

After an awkward minute or two, Yang finally spoke up again and asked, "Blake, what's going on?" The question immediately set Blake's thoughts into red alert.

"W-what? What are you talking about?" Blake hesitantly replied. "N-nothing is-"

"Blake," Yang insisted, "You've been blocking me out and refusing to talk to me." Yang slightly softened her gaze as she continued, "Are you angry at me for something or-"

"No! No!" Blake instinctively insisted. "I-it's not your fault!"

Yang's eyes lit up. "So there _is_ something wrong then?" She asked.

'Oh, great,' Blake thought. She didn't offer a response as she tried to innocently sip her water. Yang sighed.

"Look, Blake," Yang started, "as you've probably noticed, I've been dealing with some difficult stuff too. I can certainly agree that bottling it all up and trying to ignore it can feel like the only answer, but doing that will only make the pain hit harder when you finally have to face it." Yang's voice softened as she continued, "Blake, you're a really good friend and I hate seeing you suffer. I just…I…" Yang shook her head and resumed with her voice filled with her usual energy, "I just want you to be happy Blake, so if you need someone to talk to or vent to then I'll always be here. I'm your teammate after all and us teammates have to stick together!"

Blake held her hands to her cheeks to try and hide the blush forming across her face. Yang's presence was bad enough, but now these thoughtful words were making Blake's heart tremble even more. 'She says that all she wants is for me to be happy, even after believing there'd be no chance of us ever being together? ' Blake thought. 'I think she'd help my own problem a lot more if she quit being so perfect. Gah, how can she make me get like this? Why is she doing this? Shouldn't she be pulling away from me because of the pain I've caused her already? Why's she just giving in and letting Ruby push us closer?'

"So," Yang finally said as she finished her second slice of pizza, "do you want to talk about whatever it is?"

Of course she wanted to. Blake desperately wanted to correct all of the lies to Yang and remedy the guilt she felt. She wanted to listen to her desires and be able to fully acknowledge Yang's presence. She wanted to assure Yang there could be something more between them and dive head into a possible relationship. However, such a path still led to further guilt. How could Blake possibly expect Yang to commit herself to her while Blake wasn't even fully committed to her own sexuality?

Carefully, Blake replied, "I can't talk about it. I-it will affect other people."

Yang chuckled, "Oh c'mon, I won't tell anyone."

Desperately trying to avoid the subject, Blake countered, "Well do you want to talk about the difficult stuff you've been dealing with too?" Blake already knew all about Yang's problem and she needed to prevent Yang from knowing that she knew, but that didn't mean she couldn't use it to her advantage.

Yang's expression shifted to shock and then back to a nervous laugh as she scratched the back of her head. "Yeah," she replied, "I'd rather not. We can just say my issues affect people too."

The faunus said in response, satisfied, "That's what I thought."

The two, content with keeping their own secrets, continued conquering the seemingly endless supply of food. In relative silence aside from the occasional chirp of a bird or rustle of the leaves, Blake finished two sandwiches and two slices of pizza before finally yielding. Yang also had to finally admit surrender after her seventh slice of pizza. There was still tons of food remaining, but considering it was a serving size intended for four people, neither of them were ashamed of their shortcoming.

With the ordeal complete, Blake proceeded to pack up what food had been spared – most of which was shamefully the actual healthy fruits. The apple pie was untouched, but Blake knew it wouldn't remain that way for long. As Blake started to fold up the blanket, Yang sat in the grass trying to make the largest burp possible as some sort of celebration. 'To be fair, she is achieving her goal,' Blake thought, 'but that doesn't excuse how weird she's being. You could've fooled me that I'd find solace in this girl.'

Yang:

Yang was obviously one to mess around and generally be the light of any situation. Such was a title she held with much pride. With Blake clearly being in a less than joyful state, Yang took it upon herself to try and cheer her up in any ridiculous way necessary.

'I need to maintain a distance from Blake to make sure I can get past my feelings for her,' Yang decided, ' but that certainly doesn't mean I can simply leave her to pout. She doesn't have to talk about whatever's wrong, but she _does _have to cheer up whenever I'm around since I'm the coolest teammate _ever._'

Yang proudly continued her obnoxious bellows which echoed through the branches of the forest. Yang's goal, if anything, was to get Blake's attention, no matter how annoyed such attention may become.

"You're being gross," Blake finally said as she closed the lid to the basket with all of their belongings collected.

Yang looked up, laughing now, "Oh, are you going to lecture me about maturity and manners now? You're starting to sound like Weiss."

"You sound like an ursa."

"Now you're directly insulting me. Now you _really_ sound like the ice queen," Yang replied, excited now that the faunus had acknowledged her. "I refuse to allow you to become as horribly boring and stuck up as she is. Quick let's play a game or something! We must save your humanity!"

Blake slung her pack, overflowing with collected sap jars, over her shoulder. With a face slightly softened, but still clearly trying to stay emotionless, Blake replied, "Or we could calmly walk our way back to Beacon. How can you even consider doing anything else after the amount of food we just ate?"

Ignoring Blake's input as she picked up her own pack, Yang continued with a gleam in her eye, "I know a fun game! Let's play tag!"

"Tag? What are you thinking-"

"Tag!" Yang yelled as she suddenly leapt forward and tapped Blake on the arm. The blond then darted back several yards, bracing herself to bolt away, expecting Blake to pursue. Rather, the faunus stood still, unamused. "Yeah…" Blake responded, with a sizable dose of sarcasm, "No."

'Man is she good and sounding so uncaring and distant,' Yang thought, 'It's cool if Blake's upset about life or whatever, but I'll be damned if I can't help her find a bit of fun in life too. Sorry about this, Blake, but desperate times call for desperate measures and frankly I'm craving to just see you smile just a little bit. So we're going to have some fun whether you want to or not!'

"You asked for this!" Yang yelled as she bolted back towards the faunus. Blake stood immobilized, expecting to be tagged yet again in a pathetic attempt to get her to follow Yang, but instead, Yang reached and gracefully plucked Blake's bow off of her head. Before Blake could fully react to what had happened, Yang dashed away at full speed with the black bow raised triumphantly in her hand. Calling back, Yang repeated herself, "Tag!"

Yang's heart pounded as she dove into the brush of the forest, leaving the clearing behind, and rushed forward. Among cursing and yelling, she could hear faster and faster steps approaching behind her as grass and leaves crunched underfoot.

'Heh, well it sounds like she's chasing me,' Yang's thoughts were immediately doubted however as the sounds of her pursuer suddenly vanished. Yang looked back and saw nothing but red trees and grass behind her. Yang kept running forward as she tried to spot any sign of where Blake could've vanished to. As Yang turned her attention back to where she was going, she was surprised to see the faunus dropping from above only feet in front of her. Blake had passed her through the tree tops! As impressed as Yang was in Blake's speed and skill, she couldn't think about any of that as Yang's momentum drove her directly into the faunus.

The collision left the two collapsed onto the ground, the fall cushioned by the thick grass below. Yang's eyes winced shut as the pain registered. "Sorry," Yang kept saying over again as she tried to find her bearings. Her voice trailed away as her eyes registered that she had landed on top of Blake with their bodies pressed together and their faces only inches apart.

Yang immediately recoiled and scrambled off of the faunus, feeling her face erupt in red. 'Oh my god,' Yang frantically thought, 'That was not good…I mean was good, but…NO! I need to keep my distance and that was not_ nearly_ enough distance. I've got to be more careful! Holy _shit_!' Yang was so busy worrying about her own embarrassment and blocking out naughty thoughts, that she didn't even notice how equally, if not more, blushed Blake had become.

After a horribly awkward silence, Blake finally muttered, "Can I have my bow back?"

Yang snapped out of her thoughts and nervously laughed, "Yeah, of course." Yang handed the bow back and Blake hastily wrapped the material back over her ears. Another silence quickly ensued as the teammates picked up the packs which had scattered to the ground.

"So," Yang started, longing to stop the awkwardness, "You want to head back to Beacon now?"

Blake's lips curled into an ever so slight smile, "Yes, but let's walk calmly and not steal my bow anymore. That way no one will get trampled."

Yang chuckled as the two started slowly walking under the red leaves back to the academy, "I didn't trample you!"

Blake laughed in response, a sound that was a joyous ring to Yang's ears, "Much like how you sound, you trampled me like an ursa. Just learn to watch where you're going."

"Me watch where I'm going?" Yang countered, "Why don't you watch out where you drop out of a tree?"

Blake shook her head, "Why don't you refrain yourself from stealing bows and insisting on playing childish games so that I don't have to jump through the trees to stop you."

"You didn't_ have_ to jump through the trees," Yang pointed out, "You could've simply ran after me like a normal person!"

The bickering and joking between the two continued as they made their long way back out the forest and back to civilization. The journey back was even more difficult than before since the teammates were carrying more than their fair share of sap jars, but neither complained. Sharing each other's presence seemed to be solace enough as they walked back to Vale.

As they walked down the busy street of Vale, now nearly back to Beacon, Yang glanced over and saw a genuine smile resting on Blake's face. Yang smiled in return, proud of her work. The blond thought to herself, 'I have no idea what had Blake all moody and antisocial today, frankly I don't really care to know specifically what it is, but I'm glad I managed to cheer her up, at least for today. Making this girl happy is the best feeling in the world, and I'll be sure to do so even if she'll never know how much I care about her. I don't need to be with Blake, I just need her to be happy.'

As true as her thoughts were, her mind still couldn't stop recollecting the sense and feeling of her contact with Blake from before. The physical embrace, whether Yang wanted to acknowledge it or not, had felt amazing.

Yang sighed as they nearly arrived at their destination, thinking, 'Though, I would still love to be with her…'

* * *

**HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? WHAT TOOK SO LONG? Well, I had been planning on taking a break for exams, but after taking said break for two weeks, it became increasingly more difficult to get back into writing. I really wanted to write this whole past month, but my motivation never really led to me to actually sitting down and writing. I honestly just got distracted a lot - drawing, playing dota, reading other, better fanfiction, literally just sitting and doing nothing. Regardless, I'm glad to finally be back. This chapter was the hardest to write so far because I had a plan for it and then I chose to abandon the plan. The first arc was supposed to end this chapter, but I didn't want it to feel forced or rushed, so I had to rework everything. I could write another 5,000 words just explaining my reasoning, but I think it would be better for me to just shut up and start chapter 11 so the story can speak for itself. Thanks again for all of the support from all of you. I probably would've given up on this if there weren't 80 freaking people waiting for more. I mean that's a lot of people O_o please don't hurt me. **

**WARNING! BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT INCOMING! PLEASE IGNORE IF YOU GET OFFENDED BY ANNOYING ADVERTISEMENTS: I've also been updating my deviantArt. If you like crappy fan art or crappy sketches, then I'm "Fl00rMaster" on deviantArt. If anything that's just another place you have the option of yelling at me at.**

**Anyways, I'm going to go play dota...wait no...write chapter 11! Yeah. In all seriousness though, I'm going to try and roll out the chapters faster. Five weeks is really too long _**


	11. Chapter 11 - Courage

**...I know...I know...we'll have a discussion...**

* * *

Blake:

The journey had felt like an eternity despite the sun resting only halfway into the afternoon. Yang and Blake stumbled through the door of their team's room, completely exhausted, dropped their packs to the ground and proceeded to collapse onto their respective beds. They completely ignored the clattering of rolling of jars on the ground and the greeting from their team leader.

After a moment of brief peace, Ruby said, "Weiss is going to get pissed if any of those jars break." As the collapsed duo remained unchanged, Ruby giggled and picked up the fallen materials herself. "That long of a walk back, huh?"

Yang's response was absorbed by her pillow. Her words were veiled, but her annoyed tone was clear. Ruby kept laughing as she said, "No one can hear you. Your words are in vain."

Yang raised her head and repeated herself groggily, "It would've been far easier if you and Weiss hadn't run off and left us with almost all of the sap. Where the heck is she anyways? Shouldn't she be whining about doing our project or something?"

Ruby picked the final jar of sap off the ground. As she sat back down onto her own bed, she replied, "Yeah, sorry about all of that." The unyielding smile she wore, however, was far from apologetic. "I have no idea where Weiss went off to. She ran off as soon as we got back and I've just been hanging out here ever since."

Blake raised her own head to narrow her gaze at their leader. Ruby was clearly lying about knowing absolutely nothing about Weiss. Having Weiss leave was all part of her plan.

"So," Ruby continued, "how was all the food? I spent a while working on it, so I hope it was good." Yang groaned is response, "It was too good…ate too much…so much pizza…sleep forever now…didn't even get any pie…"

Ruby stared for a moment at Yang and then back over to the basket resting on the table. She made the connection and then instantly bounced off of her bed to cut herself a slice of pie; she thought for sure it would've been gone. As Ruby gleefully munched into a giant slice of the apple pie, she asked in between bites, "So did anything else happen while you guys were out there?"

'Well someone is grasping for details,' Blake thought. "Nope," Blake quickly replied, eager to avoid any awkwardness over the dumb game Yang had wanted to play, "We just collected all the sap, ate, and came back."

Ruby immediately looked dissatisfied despite the mountains of sugar she was consuming. "Say, Blake," Ruby said, "I could use a hand with some stuff. Do you mind following me real quick?"

Blake stood up slowly, "I-I guess? What do you-?"

"Great!" Ruby exclaimed while she snatched Blake's wrist and hastily dragged her out the door of their room, leaving Yang still face planted on her bed.

As Ruby slammed the door shut behind them, her eyes darted up and down the hallway, making sure it was empty. "Ruby," Blake said, extremely curious as to what was going on now, "what are you doing?"

Ruby turned her attention back to the faunus as she said, "Listen to me. I should be asking_ you_ that same question! What are _you _doing?"

Blake wasn't following, "Uhh…"

Ruby vented, trying very hard not to scream, "Yang clearly likes you a lot and you clearly like Yang a lot. So why the heck can't you tell her you're not asexual so you two can live happily ever after and ride off into the freaking sunset?! I dropped a lot of effort into all the food and planning for today. Do you know how hard it was to get Weiss out of there? And now you two come back from the most beautiful forest in Remnant, from an amazing picnic, from a perfect plan and tell me nothing happened and you're both still just friends?"

Ruby gripped the bridge of her nose as her rant came to close. Blake shifted weight between her feet awkwardly, unsure of how to respond. She could tell why Ruby was upset, but that still didn't change her reasoning for not wanting to tell Yang all of this.

"Ruby," Blake slowly said, trying to come across as rational as possible, "I'm a coward. I panic and feel discriminated by just watching other people being abused. I'll never be able to openly be a lesbian or acknowledge Yang as anything more than a friend to other people. I just don't think-"

"What?" Ruby cut in, "You don't think Yang deserves that?" Ruby shook her head, "Maybe you're right, maybe she doesn't deserve to be in secret relationship. Maybe Yang does deserve someone who can bravely and openly be her girlfriend. Maybe Yang does deserve better than you."

Blake clenched her eyes shut. Ruby's words were exactly what Blake had been thinking, but they still really stung hearing them from her.

"But," Ruby continued. Blake opened her eyes back to the team's leader, "It doesn't matter what you think Yang deserves. All that matters, as far as this relationship goes, is what Yang _wants_ and as far as I've heard, you are the only criteria that she cares about. Maybe she won't want to have a secret relationship, but if that's how it'll have to be with you, then she'll just have to make the choice for herself."

Ruby sighed, "Give her the choice, Blake. Right now she believes her only option is to move on and forget about you. As much as I know she _can_ do that, I know she doesn't _want_ to do that. I also know you don't really want to move past her either for that matter. So go tell her you're _not_ asexual, you _are_ a lesbian, and you could even add in the fact that you like her too. Don't deny that by the way. You totally like her back."

Blake pursed her lips, not sure what to say. 'Everything she's saying makes sense, but…' Blake strained her thoughts. She tried to revive all the reasons she had brought up earlier as to why they could never be together. She knew they were there, but she was completely blanking out. 'Oh god, Ruby did not just talk me into this…'

"Ruby," Blake could feel herself trembling, "I-I _can't_"

"Why not?" Ruby immediately countered.

Blake had nothing to fight back against that question. The fear built up in her chest continued screaming that she couldn't tell Yang, but it offered no actual reasoning. All Blake could offer was a pleading look in her eyes.

In response, Ruby merely shook her head. "I get it," Ruby said, "You're scared. However, I'm done casually pushing you two together. My little plans were fun, but it's gotten ridiculous. Now I'm shoving – you're going to tell everything to Yang tonight or else I'm bringing it up with the entire team."

Blake felt herself nearly black out right there. Her words became jumbled in her throat as she tried to protest against Ruby's threat. All she could manage was, "B-but…I…please no…"

"You can either make this a private matter with Yang, or we can make it a team issue. Weiss won't be back until late this evening and I'm going to hit the gym until then. You have a few hours. Use them wisely. I wish you the best of luck, Blake."

With that Ruby casually pranced her way down the hallway, leaving Blake trembling and fighting the feeling to run away like she had during the first semester. As she turned and saw the door to their room, it appeared more like an entrance to hell.

'What the hell do I do now?' Blake thought as she sat on the floor with her back against the door. Blake sighed. 'Well it's more a matter of what I _can_ do. I either tell Yang myself or Ruby is going to…Why can't I just tell her? What am I so against the idea? Shouldn't I be bouncing at the chance to give Yang the choice she deserves? All of Ruby's logic was sound and makes my idea of forcing us both to blindly move on sound ridiculous, so why do I still feel so against it?'

'…Am I scared? Am I just scared of telling her? She could very well get angry at me for keeping all of this from her even after she had her break down…god…'

Blake buried her head into her hands, feeling tears attempting to force their way from her eyes. 'This whole situation is far worse than it ever should've been,' Blake told herself, 'I should've just been honest with Sun in the first place and never been afraid of my feelings…I…I have to fix this…I can't keep ignoring our relationship, pretending that will solve anything.'

Blake stood up as she wiped her eyes and turned towards the door the team's room. 'As forceful as Ruby has been about this, perhaps I'll have to thank her for it one day.'

Slowly, Blake brought her hand up and rested it upon the door knob. She took a much needed deep breath to ease her trembling as she thought, 'It's time to tell the truth to Yang – that I know she loves me…and…' Blake trembled as she threw the concept across her neurons, 'and that I love her too.'

Blake turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open as she thought to herself, 'Here goes everything.'

Yang:

'God damn it, Ruby. Why'd you leave this out? Why?'

Yang was going to be perfectly happy with the metric ton of pizza she had already consumed, but once the wrapper was pulled from that apple pie and its aroma was set free, Yang couldn't bear to lie on her bed and not consume the sugary goodness. After scarfing down a generously cut slice, Yang's judgement finally listened to her straining stomach as she decided against eating any more.

With the shot of sugar pulsing through her veins, endless sleep no longer seemed to be an option as a course of action. Yang scanned the room trying to decide what could be done this afternoon. Her eyes immediately found their way to Blake's corner of the room where all the girl's books and belongings were. Yang shook her head. Thinking about Blake wasn't an option on the table.

Her gaze journeyed further until they stopped again at her own desk. She suddenly recalled that she never completed the homework for Oobleck's class that Blake and her had previously worked on together. Yang had completely forgotten to finish the multiple choice problems by copying off Weiss. She'd been completely rattled by Blake's cuddling.

Panic built in her chest as she dashed over to Weiss' desk in hopes to find the work to copy off of. Yang was shocked to find no trace of Weiss' binder or backpack. Her hopes for an easy solution had been crushed as she now raced frantically back to her desk to see her burden.

'It's not a problem! It's only three in the afternoon. I have plenty of time to work on…sixty problems…that Oobleck is checking for both completion and accuracy.' Yang sighed at the packet in her hand as she grabbed her textbook thinking, 'Man do I wish Blake and I had just finished this yesterday…'

Yang paused her panicked actions as she turned back to the door where Blake was conveniently walking back through from 'helping' Ruby. 'Perfect,' Yang thought, relieved.

"Blake!" Yang nearly shouted. The faunus recoiled at the noise, clearly not expecting such an outburst. "What? What is it?" Blake replied, frantically. She was clearly shaken by something, but Yang hardly cared at the moment.

"I have homework to do," Yang announced as if that was worth yelling about, "and Weiss, along with her work, is nowhere to be found! Would you mind helping me with the rest of Oobleck's packet? Otherwise, I'm probably going to flunk this assignment."

Blake seemed to relax at the question as if she was expecting much worse of an announcement. However, her eyes still wouldn't meet Yang's as she distantly replied, "Y-yeah, sure."

Blake brought over a chair and sat next to Yang at her desk.

"Thanks for helping," Yang grinned, "I honestly could manage on my own, but your assistance yesterday really helped me understand the material."

Yang brought her pencil down to the first question, "Alright," she exclaimed, "Why was the Cross Continental Transmit System built?"

Yang scratched her head, " Hmmm, well it was built so the kingdoms could communicate, obviously, so it's 'C'. Right, Blake?"

Blake stared down blankly, muttering, "Yes, I believe that's correct…"

Yang glanced over at the faunus, frowning at her apparent mood. 'Didn't I cheer you up earlier today?' Yang thought, 'Why on Remnant are you so upset? You being upset makes it harder to forget about you! Sympathy is well related to love so stop it! Shouldn't I, the heartbroken one, be the one upset?'

"Hey" Yang said, "What's up with you, Blake?" Blake kept her gaze down as Yang continued," I know you said you didn't what to talk about whatever you're problem is, but… I don't know… you seem really out of it. I'm really starting to get worried, and I assume Ruby and Weiss will be also."

Blake slowly looked up at her teammate; she was clearly deep in thought as her attention still seemed to reside elsewhere. The faunus sighed, seeming to clench her jaw as she started to speak, "Look Yang… I… " Blake scowled and pinched the bridge of her nose. 'Why is this so difficult?' Yang wondered.

Blake muttered something to herself, barely audible. However, Yang would've sworn she said, "Stop being a coward."

"Yang," Blake announced abruptly, locking her eyes into reality as she locked her gaze with Yang. "Y-yes?" Yang replied, mildly surprised and extensively confused.

"I-I have to tell you something," Blake stated.

"Uh, okay! What's up?" Yang answered, suddenly noticing that Blake was blushing. 'What the hell is happening?' Yang thought.

"There's really no easy way to say this, so I'll cut the crap and just say it," Blake said, her voice nearly trembling. 'What you're saying right now _is_ the crap, get to the point!' Yang thought.

"Yang…" Blake clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut. Yang stared at her teammate, waiting for a floodgate to burst. 'What hell is this? What could possibly be difficult for her to tell me?' Yang thought. 'I don't see why she's freaking out so much-'

"I know that you're in love with me."

…

'What,' Yang thought. She stared at Blake. Blake opened her eyes, clearly looking for a reaction to what she'd just said. Yang suddenly realized Blake had actually spoken. Blake had actually just said…

'WHAT!? WHAT!? WHAT THE FUCK!?' Yang screamed in her head. She felt her heart rate accelerate beyond measurement as her whole body contracted in an absolute panic. She felt a storm of tears behind her eyes as she had no idea how to feel. 'What just happened? Did Blake just…what…how…why…'

"Yang!" Yang suddenly became aware of Blake shaking her shoulders. Yang felt her face on fire as she babbled incomprehensively, "I-I…You…I don't…I…I can't…you…what…"

"Yang please calm down!" Blake said, as she nervously insisted "It's okay!"

"It's okay?" Yang muttered, in a daze. "W-what do you mean it's okay? Are you not…? I don't…"

Blake suddenly wrapped her arms around Yang, pulling her into a tight hug. Yang nearly lost her breath by the contact. The warm embrace, although intoxicating, was only making Yang tremble more.

"Yang," Blake softly said into her teammate's ear, "it's okay that you're in love with me because, as I've recently figured out, I'm in love with you too."

Yang felt her heart rate grind to a slow. She felt time slow down around her as she felt the embrace of the girl around her. She felt the serene peace she'd only ever experienced in the day dreams that stole her every day. Yang pulled herself out of the hug and placed her hands onto Blake's crimson cheeks.

"Y-you love me?" Yang struggled to ask, as she locked eyes with the faunus. Blake offered a genuine smile, brighter than the sun, and replied steadily, "Yes. I love you."

'Oh my fucking god – I have so many fucking questions.' Yang rambled in her thoughts, 'Holy shit. I don't care, fuck it!'

Yang dove forward, forcefully meeting Blake's lips with her own. Blake's face heated up even further, but she didn't pull away a bit; the faunus leaned forward a wrapped her arms around the blonde. Yang felt a constant spark travel through her body; none of her fantasies had come close to this feeling. The kiss lingered on between their locked lips until their screaming lungs finally forced them to separate. Yang prevented a moan from vocalizing as she tried to process what had just happened.

Yang looked back to the girl beside her, still heavily blushing. After catching her breath, she shakily said, "I have several questions."

Blake softly laughed in reply, "Yes, I think there's some explaining to do."

"Okay," Yang gathered her thoughts, and finally asked, "Well, uh, how did you know?"

Blake's eyes drifted to the floor as she replied, "I figured it out the other day. There was no other apparent reason why you'd be so upset with me being asexual …"

Yang suddenly remembered that point, "Wait so…uh…" Yang stammered, "…are you not actually asexual then? I…uh…"

Blake nervously laughed, "I am not. I only told Sun that because he could tell I wasn't straight and I…I didn't want…" Blake sighed, "I was too scared to tell him the truth."

Yang's eye's widened, "The truth being?"

Blake slowly answered, "As much as I've suppressed the idea of it, it seems that I'm gay."

Yang felt her heart skip several beats, "So you like girls then?" Yang felt tears coming back, but for entirely different reasons, "You can like me?"

Blake pulled Yang back into another hug, softly replying, "Yes I can like you. The real question is can you like me?"

Yang sniffled, "W-what do you mean?"

"Yang…" Blake pulled away and met Yang in her lilac orbs. "The reason why I didn't tell you this sooner is because I'm scared of what I am and what we would be."

"What are you talking about? What are you scared of? Am I-?" Yang stammered.

"No," Blake insisted, "there's nothing wrong with you, Yang. I'm just…" Blake sighed, "You know how I was discriminated against as a child solely because I'm a faunus? So I hid what I am behind my bow?"

Yang nodded.

"Well I feel terrified of being treated as a freak for my sexuality as well. Because of that, I want to hide it and- and" Blake's words got caught in her throat, "I don't want to condemn you to hiding with me. You deserve someone who can be just as open about who they are as you." Tears began to swell in Blake's eyes. She clearly felt horrible about this idea, yet Yang just felt confused.

"Wait," Yang calmly replied, "You think I wouldn't be willing to keep us a secret? Is that what you're saying?" Blake squeezed her eyes closed, nodding. Although, they suddenly snapped open as Blake felt Yang grasp her hands. 'That's her only catch?' Yang laughed to herself.

"I don't care if anyone else knows," Yang insisted, "Keeping a little secret is beyond worth it for you!"

Blake exhaled, like she was holding in the world. She gripped Yang's tighter. "So," Blake whispered, "Are we…uh…officially…you know?"

Yang chuckled as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, "No way! I've still got to make it official now!" Yang cleared her throat as Blake laughed in return.

"Blake Belladonna," Yang said in her most formal voice, "Will you be my girlfriend?" Blake was cracking up now, out of pure emotional relief, but managed to squeak out, "Yes! I'll be your girlfriend!"

Yang burst out laughing, out of pure joy. Without a second thought, she leapt forward again and kissed her newly declared girlfriend.

…

Blake:

After fully explaining all of what happened and completing Yang's remaining homework, the pair settled down, cuddling on Blake's bed with another movie on at their feet. Blake rested her head on Yang's shoulder, much as she had before.

Yang chuckled, noting, "This is exactly how you fell asleep yesterday. You're so adorable."

Blake grinned as she adjusted herself closer to Yang. "Yeah, I remember a bit of it."

"Wait what?" Yang demanded, "You were awake?"

Blake grinned, "No, I fell asleep. However, upon waking up I just kind…stayed there." Yang groaned in response. "You have no idea how awkward that was for me," Yang muttered. "Yeah," Blake replied, "but I dare say you survived."

"Heh I guess so," Yang mused, "Anyways, what do you think we should do to Ruby for all of this?"

Blake chuckled, asking, "For doing all of what? Caring about both of us enough to entirely disregard what both of us asked of her? I don't think that requires too harsh of a punishment, after all," Blake held onto Yang a bit tighter, "her plans worked out."

Yang smirked, "Regardless of success, she had the full intention of disclosing what I told her to keep secret. For that, she at least deserves a bit of a scare." Yang pondered the idea for a moment. "I know," she exclaimed, "How about when she comes back, we pretend to hate each other and blame such on her forcing you to tell me you love me. That'll definitely scare her from ever disobeying big sister Yang again." 'Ohhhh Yang,' Blake laughed to herself, 'I'd rather not punish the one who gave me the courage to love you.'

"I guess that could work," Blake smiled, "but that would require us to stop cuddling now. She'll likely be back from the gym any minute now." Blake finished her point by pecking Yang with a kiss on the cheek.

Yang felt herself start to blush, "dear god," she muttered, "it's only a few hours into this relationship and you already have complete and total control over me." Blake grinned with victory as Yang shook her head.

"I suppose instead we can simply congratulate Ruby on a job well done once she comes back," Yang suggested. Blake nodded her head, rubbing it against Yang's shoulder.

A silent moment passed as the movie played on Blake's laptop. Blake was picking up on a lot of crap going on in the movie, but she hardly felt the need to point it out or acknowledge it. All she was really paying attention to was Yang's embrace.

Just then, a thought popped into Yang's head. "So Blake," Yang started. Blake tilted her head up to make eye contact, "Yeah?" she replied.

"Um…I'm totally cool with keeping this a secret …as long as we need to…" Yang said, with slight unease, "but aren't we going to have to tell Weiss?"

Blake sighed. That very thought had been in the back of her mind, but she didn't really know how to approach it. Weiss seemed to more or less handle Blake being a faunus, but expecting her to accept two lesbian teammates and keep their relationship a secret seemed like a bit much.

"I-I don't really know," Blake stated, growing more concerned now, "I definitely agree that we'll have to tell her. Hiding it from her would be insanely difficult and likely bad for our teamwork, but…she's…"

"She's Weiss," Yang concluded, with somewhat annoyance.

"How about we talk to Ruby about it?" Blake suggested "She's Weiss' partner after all, so she may have some better insight."

Yang giggled.

Confused, Blake asked, "What? What's funny?"

"I just realized," Yang beamed, "we're partners, and we're partners."

"Oh my god, Yang" Blake laughed, "Contain yourself - this is serious!"

Yang scratched her head, still giggling, "I know I'm sorry."

Shaking her head, Blake stopped laughing and offered, "Okay so we'll talk about this whole…everything with Ruby, and take it from there."

"Sounds like a plan," Yang agreed, "Until then, cuddles!" Yang proceeded to kiss the faunus on the forehead and pull her closer.

'Oh Yang' Blake blissfully thought as she tried to suppress the knowledge she'd have to keep this bliss a secret from the world.

* * *

**Okay so as you probably noticed, this story kind of died. To be honest, I have no real excuse, my interests have simply wandered from writing, so I've been working on drawing and programming. After all, this writing is at its core just for fun. (To be honest, I also read a lot of fanfics WAAAY better than this, which isn't much for motivation) So, sorry for those of you really dedicated to this story, I realize how much the wait must have sucked, and I totally understand if you don't even follow this anymore...speaking of which this story got up to 120 followers when I was gone, like holy crap - I'm really glad so many people have enjoyed the story. I hope not all of you hate me. As for the future, I'm not going to make any promises on times, but I will say that I've had more to this story planned out for a long time and I should be able to continue it. (To be honest - again, the real reason I finally got this chapter out is because you all wanted it...so if you want a second arc...please vocalize it. Motivation is damn important.)**

***Sigh***

**Okay, so story. This is end of the first arc, so at least now a somewhat cohesive thing has been created. Blake stopped being dumb and now they're a thing and we Built a Bumblebee woo hoo now we have to have mild happiness before bringing in more crushing conflict. Yay arc 2!**

**Anyways, if you're interested, I do a lot of fan art on my deviantArt "Fl00rMaster". I update that far more regularly as I've been drawing fan art for every new episode of Volume 3.**

**Hope to see you all for Chapter 12...I hope to see me at Chapter 12...**


	12. Chapter 12 - Disclosure

**Wow it's only been a month.**

* * *

Ruby:

'Mwahahaha. I'm a genius!' Ruby thought to herself.

Ever since Yang and Blake had finally admitted their feeling for one another and reluctantly thanked Ruby, Ruby had been overjoyed, praising her own brilliance. This overwhelming feeling of accomplishment was still consuming her now as she sat in her Monster Fighting class paying no attention to Professor Port's lecture.

Despite the success, Ruby was also thinking of the next step that had to be taken: telling Weiss about all of this. Yang and Blake had asked for her advice, but the only answer she could offer at the time was 'I don't know. We'll figure out later'.

'I mean, Weiss will probably be fine with it,' Ruby thought, 'Even if she's not okay with gay teammates, she's already in a great mood considering how I got rid of her yesterday. So it should work out? I mean after all-'

"Yang Xiao Long!"

Ruby snapped out of her thoughts at the abrupt interjection. She peered over to her now fully attentive older sister.

Yang beamed, "Yes sir!" Yang had an entirely different aura about her. It's incredible what a decent amount of sleep can do for someone.

Port, however, wasn't fazed by the shift in attitude and continued his attack, "What can you tell me about the bodily functions of the creatures of grimm?"

Yang took a pause, giving a short illusion of being entirely lost. Then she answered, proudly, "Not very much! Grimm dissolve after death so none have really been studied. The only thing we really know is that they don't require any nutrients to survive – they gain energy through other means."

The entire class turned their heads and stared at Yang. She'd actually given a legitimate answer. Port took a second, but finally stammered, "Y-yes indeed. Quite correct! This lack of knowledge is why what little facts we do know are so valuable." Port continued his lecture as best he could, yet he was clearly shaken.

Yang, no doubt feeling accomplished, returned to writing down notes. Blake sat next to her and despite expert stealth that likely fooled everyone else, Ruby could just barely tell that they were holding hands under the desk.

…

Following the usual class, Ruby entered the cafeteria. Taking note of Weiss' expected absence, she sat down at the table with her remaining teammates. "Hey guys, I see you two are doing great."

"Heh, I think we're managing," Yang grinned. Blake looked over her book, distantly adding, "Yes, I'd agree." She then returned to the pages without another word.

Yang scratched her head, noting, "Unfortunately Blake is back to being her distant self. She's a lot less fun like this." Blake offered no response, as Ruby chuckled, "Well yeah, you agreed to stay secretive in public, Yang. I dare say a cafeteria full of students counts as public."

Shrugging, the blonde replied, "That's fair. I guess I'll just have to get used to the sudden shifts in her personality. I just hope I don't get too affection deprived."

Blake looked back up at Yang, quietly responding, "I held your hand all of Port's class. You're fine. Besides you lovingly discussed how my 'mysteriousness' is why you were interested in me in the first place. Quit complaining."

"Well, I suppose there's no fighting that," Yang admitted, letting the skirmish die as she dug into her food.

"Hey Ruby," Yang barked with her mouth full.

"Yeah?"

"You said we'd talk about telling Weiss about all of this, but before we get into that, how the heck did you get rid of her yesterday?"

Blake looked over, adding, "I was wondering about that as well."

'They want to learn my diabolical ways. Mwahahaha,' Ruby thought to herself.

Ruby shifted in her seat. "Well," Ruby began, "I suppose I copied Yang a bit. To get rid of Weiss yesterday, I simply set her up on a date with Neptune."

"What, really?" Yang replied, "How'd you manage that? Convincing doofuses to ask girls out is no easy task I've found."

"Well," Ruby began, chuckling to herself, "I wouldn't give myself that much credit. He came up to me while I was at the gym on Saturday wondering if Weiss would be interested in him. He was more or less already going to ask her out. After all, I think everyone already knows Weiss has been crushing on him. As a result, I had the perfect opportunity to tell him the _exact_ time he should call Weiss the next day. Then all I had to do was plan the trip into Forever Fall with Weiss that evening. To be fair, I kind of just got lucky."

Blake stared at Ruby, thoroughly impressed, saying, "You managed to build an elaborate plan around a sudden opportunity like_ that_?"

Ruby beamed, "Yup!"

Blake looked over to Yang with mild terror in her eyes. Yang grinned and shrugged in response, "My little sister's pretty damn smart."

"Too smart for her own good, dear god," Blake hissed.

'This is perfect,' Ruby thought, 'I've got to make elaborate plots more often!'

"So," Yang said, taking another bite of her lunch, "that's where Weiss is now I assume – with Neptune?"

"Yup," Ruby replied, noticing that across the cafeteria, Neptune was missing from his team as well.

"In that case, we should plan on how we're going to tell her about us," Yang suggested, motioning to herself and Blake.

"I mean," Ruby hesitantly answered, "I don't think there's much to plan. Weiss has no reason to not be cool with all of this…"

The sisters peered over to Blake, the one without a doubt was the most unsettled by the situation.

Blake sighed, closing her book. "I just…" the faunus tried to organize her thoughts, "I'm still paranoid about all of this. I'm worried about telling anyone about all of this. If you didn't know about us, Ruby, I'd be panicked about telling you too."

Yang put her hand over Blake's, trying to offer reassurance, to which, Blake swiftly slid her hand away. Yang laughed nervously, realizing her mistake, "Heh, well it seems like we should just tell her. I understand your nervousness, but we really don't have a solid reason to doubt Weiss."

"Aside from her freaking out about me last semester," Blake pointed out.

"Well," Ruby said, "That was more about the White Fang membership than anything about you personally. We have no reason to expect her to discriminate on sexuality."

Blake groaned and put her head on the table, clearly growing stressed over this. She muttered something to the ground.

"What was that?" Ruby asked.

Blake tilted her head back up, repeating, "I guess we'll just do it. We'll talk to her today." With that, Blake opened back up her novel and returned to her fictional world of choice.

"Alright," Yang agreed, "So Ruby, when should we expect to see Weiss today? I passed out long before she came back yesterday."

Ruby shrugged, "I would think much earlier than yesterday since she has homework to do, and we all know how Weiss treats her academics."

"Yeah, like a maniac," Yang muttered.

…

Yang:

After the usual day of classes had ended, Yang and Blake returned to their team's room while Ruby went to spar with team JNPR again. They had agreed to all be at the room that afternoon to tell Weiss about the situation as a team. Upon entering the room, Yang dropped her belongings to the floor and promptly sat down at their gaming console, booting up their usual fighting game.

"Wait, Yang," Blake said as she set down her own stuff on her desk, "Don't you want to go ahead and complete Oobleck's homework together?"

'Oh, hell yes!' Yang thought, 'But no, I can't act _that_ interested in homework of all things, even if it is with Blake and she'll explain everything _so beautifully_ and…'

Yang shrugged in response, sarcastically asking, "Do we have to do the work together, right now? I mean we could at least four hours, right?"

Blake rolled her eyes, fully aware of Yang's bullshit. "Very well," Blake replied, sitting down at her desk, "I suppose I'll just read the chapter by myself. We're both smart enough to do the work individually, so any cooperation between us would drastically slow us down."

Yang stood up, grinning, as she retrieved her own textbook out of her bag. "Heh, well if you're making threats like _that_," Yang replied, "Didn't you already read ahead though?"

Shrugging, Blake claimed, "I could use the review. We have a test on this chapter and the one before it on Friday."

"Fair enough," Yang agreed as she dragged her chair over to Blake's desk.

The pair took turns reading pages as they went along the chapter discussing different government policies that took place in the past century on Remnant. For the first time that year, Yang was understanding the material of Ooblek's class. Every fact and concept Blake read aloud was cemented into the blonde's memory with the aid of the beautiful voice. In addition, Yang remembered everything she read out loud as Blake would make sure she read everything fully and accurately. This prevented Yang from using her usual method of skipping every other line to save time, but actually learning the material arguably made it worth it.

As they trudged through the chapter, a nagging thought began sprouting in the back of Yang's mind. 'If Blake is afraid of anyone knowing about this,' Yang nervously thought, 'Then does that mean our entire relationship will be bound to this room? I mean I don't give a shit about other people knowing or not, but a change in scenery might be nice. Will I never be able to take my girlfriend out on a date? Will we get bored of each other? Will we break up just because we get sick of studying and cuddling every day? Or even fucking worse, what if-'

"Yang!"

Startled, Yang shouted back, "Holy shit, what!"

"Were you even paying attention while I was reading?" Blake grumbled, "It's your turn now – page 405."

"Uh", Yang hastily scrambled in her book to the next page, only furthering the point she'd been lost.

Blake sighed, "We have to read that last page again, huh."

Scratching her head with her eyes across the room, Yang mumbled, "Yeah, sorry…"

Blake looked up at her partner, detecting distress in her voice. "Are you okay? It's fine that you zoned out for a minute. I'm not actually angry…"

Yang looked back up at her girlfriend. After taking a short pause, she answered, "I was just…It's pretty stupid, but I was just thinking-"

"Hello rest of team RWBY!" Ruby yelled, now standing in the doorway.

'Are you kidding me? How do you time that, Ruby?' Yang thought to herself, genuinely impressed.

"Quit yelling, you dunce! We can all hear you perfectly fine!" Weiss snapped as she pushed past the team leader and sat down at her desk – immediately taking out work to be done. "Why did you even follow me back here?" Weiss continued to grumble, "You were still sparring with Jaune!"

"Well you were done sparring with team SSSN," Ruby replied, "So I thought-"

"Whatever!" Weiss interrupted, "Just quit yelling! I need to do the reading for Ooblek's class and work on the project in Port's class. I have to be somewhere later!"

'Ah, our 'snow angel' is as charming as always,' Yang thought with a grin, 'Well seems that it's about time to spill the beans to our cheeriest team member.'

Yang looked over to Blake and Ruby, all of them sharing slight nods.

Ruby cleared her throat and began, "Uh, Weiss."

"What?" Weiss demanded, keeping her gaze in her textbook.

"Um, well…you see…the thing is…now…uh" Ruby stammered.

Weiss took no notice and didn't even offer Ruby a scolding. The team leader glanced at Yang and Blake for rescue; she clearly wasn't confident in starting this off.

Yang pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought, 'This is already going worse than expected. To be fair, this is about Blake and I, so this isn't Ruby's responsibility. So I should be the one to go ahead and get this over with.'

Yang stood up and walked over to Weiss, clearing her throat, "Hey Weiss."

"What is it?" Weiss hissed, "Didn't I just explain that I need to get this done."

"I realize that," Yang explained, "But we kind of have a team _thing_ that we need to talk about."

Weiss looked up at the blonde. Noticing the serious tone, Weiss sighed and set down her book, "Alright," she replied, "what's going on then?"

Yang sighed with relief. After all, getting Weiss to seriously listen was an achievement by itself.

"So we're all friends here right?" Yang stated, "We're not going to critically judge each other?"

Weiss squinted her eyes, replying, "To a certain extent yes. Yang, I swear if you're failing one of your classes…"

"What? No!" Yang insisted as Ruby giggled.

"No look," Yang continued, "You see…me and…uh"

'God damn it,' Yang thought to herself, 'I get why Ruby was struggling.'

Yang cleared her throat yet again, "Weiss."

"Yes…" Weiss said; her patience thinning.

Yang continued, "Blake and I…are…." 'Dear god, here we go' "…dating…"

The room fell uncomfortably silent as Weiss rose her eyebrows. Questioning Yang's validity, the ice queen glanced over to Blake and Ruby. Blake only responded by blushing as Ruby offered a slight smile and nod.

Turning back to Yang, Weiss replied, "Okay. Thanks for letting me know, I suppose." With that she raised her textbook and continued reading.

Yang stood with her jaw dropped. 'There is no way this just went that well,' Yang thought with disbelief.

"Wait, wait, wait," Yang insisted, "That's it? You're not surprised or freaking out about this? Why aren't you disapproving or somehow scolding us? "

Weiss looked back up, slightly puzzled, "Well, I suppose I'm mildly surprised," she explained, "but I don't see this as too absurd. What's to disapprove?"

"We were slightly worried since you sort of freaked out when we learned Blake's a faunus, so…" Ruby pointed out.

Weiss scowled, "That doesn't automatically mean I'm homophobic! Sorry for being skeptical of a group of people where many of which terrorize and murder my family!"

"Weiss…" Blake growled.

Weiss sighed, "I'm sorry! The point is I don't care. You two can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't affect the effectiveness of our team," glancing back to her work, she continued, "So is that all?"

Yang scratched her head, still surprised how simple that was as she replied, "Uh, just about. Could you also just not mention this to anyone else?"

Weiss, hesitantly agreed, "Yes, I suppose…but why?"

As she was standing up, Blake explained, "I'm not really comfortable with the social aspect of this. So for now I'd prefer that no one else found out."

"Wait, so you're not openly gay?" Weiss clarified.

Blake cringed at the statement, answering, "Well Yang is, but I am not. You're thankfully accepting of this, but many people are not. Many think homosexuals to be on the same level as a faunus. So because of society, much like my ears, I'd prefer to keep Yang and I a secret."

'God, she's nearly trembling,' Yang noticed. She quickly set her arm on Blake's shoulder in a reassuring effort.

"Well that's fair enough," Weiss accepted, "I'm not one to blather on, so don't worry. I won't tell a soul."

Blake released a substantial sigh of relief, nearly whispering, "Thank you, Weiss."

"Not a problem," Weiss replied, "Now then, I'm going to do my homework so I can go out later. So please let me focus."

Ruby laughed, "So you can go out with Neptune?"

'Oh yes Ruby. Execute all of the taunting,' Yang thought, chuckling

Immediately flustered, Weiss hastily insisted, "No! Why would you think that? It's none of your business! Leave me alone and let me study you idiot!"

"Why are you getting so defensive?" Ruby giggled, "Do you think Neptune's a bad guy or something?"

"What?" Weiss frantically responded, "No! He's…I mean. Shut up Ruby! I am trying to study!"

As Ruby continued pestering the ice queen, the other pair sat back down at Blake's desk to finish up their own work.

"Okay, so we were basically done with the chapter," Blake stated, her voice still unsteady, "We just have a few more pages and then we could watch another movie?"

Yang studied the faunus, not fully convinced by the veil of peace and security. "Yeah…sure," Yang replied as she thought, 'Blake's totally still freaking out.'

"Hey," Yang softly said as she reached over the table and took hold of Blake's hand. "Weiss isn't going to tell anyone. No one's going to treat you or me any differently. We're fine, Alright?"

The faunus pursed her lips and nodded. She let out another sigh as leaned over and pulled Yang into her arms, replying, "Alright."

As the embrace lingered on, Weiss shouted over, "Also keep it PG while I'm in the room. Thank you!"

Laughing, Yang shouted back, "As long as you keep it PG with Neptune."

Growing even more flustered, Weiss hissed, "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"For someone without any ideas," Ruby taunted, "you seem far more angry than you do confused."

"You know what, Ruby Rose. You need to just-"

"Hey," Blake whispered into Yang's ear, as Weiss continued shouting across the room, "Thank you."

Yang beamed with approval, warmly replying, "Don't mention it." After another moment or two, Yang added, "So you want to finish this homework?"

Blake pulled away, nodding as she lifted her book.

"Yeah," Blake said, "page 405. It's still your turn to read."

* * *

**Heyyyyy I finished another chapter everyone! Yay! In the past month, Volume 3 finally ended and I'm dead after that. It's kind of weird that now my story is completely non- canon. It's always been since it's a fan fiction, but the way I wrote it initially allowed it to follow Volume 2...now it's all just non- canon. I suppose that just gives me more freedom, but...I don't know, it feels weird. (On the bright side the Bumblebee ship sailed for like 5 seconds in the show)**

**So in regard to this chapter, I finally explained some elements that were left up in the air since last May. Yang and Blake are good aside from mild concern from Yang and expected paranoia from Blake. The next chapter or two may just be fluff, but big things are coming...probably not for a while longer than 2 chapters...heh you'll all fucking hate the twist coming...or you might just see it coming...or you might NOT!**

**I see this has 141 followers now ... damn. Thank you all, I'm glad you're enjoying it ^_^**

**Also thank you to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter. It felt really fucking good to come back after such along time to a positive crowd.**

**So with that, insert plug (Fl00rMaster on deviantArt which I update WAY more frequently) and I'll see you in Chapter 13.**


	13. Chapter 13 - Battle

**Sorry for it being two months, but at least it wasn't seven months...? ;-;**

* * *

Blake:

Classes continued in their usual manner the next day. The hunters in training sat bored out of their minds until the sweet ring of the bell finally freed them. Blake casually packed up her belongings and left her history class where she almost immediately saw Yang who'd no doubt knocked down everyone in her way to arrive so quickly from the other wing of the school.

"Hey, Blake!" Yang cheerfully greeted.

Blake smiled, "Hey, Yang. How many people did you plow through this time?"

"Only seven! I'm a master of these hallways!" Yang boasted.

"Only seven?" Blake skeptically replied, "Is that an achievement?"

Shrugging, Yang explained, "It's an improvement from yesterday's fourteen. Plus, only three of the people today actually fell down."

"Well," Blake couldn't help but grinning at the absurdity, "You're right. That's technically an improvement…technically."

"You betcha!" Yang beamed.

As the pair exited the building into the courtyard, Yang glanced around, ensuring no one was too close, and asked, "Hey, Blake?"

Taking notice of Yang's tone, Blake turned her attention to the blonde, "Yeah?"

Yang glanced around again, clearly feeling either unconfident or unsure about something.

"Here," Yang finally said, "Walk with me real quick."

'I already was but if you insist,' Blake thought as she followed Yang. They approached a path branching through some bushes and trees away from the main courtyard. After a few moments, Blake realized this was where Yang had ran off to the other day. The bushes and trees quickly thickened, isolating the pair from the other students racing around the academy.

Yang glanced around yet again, now seeming to be satisfied. She stopped walking, turned around and started again, "Okay, Blake. Sorry about that, but I needed to talk to you privately."

"I kind of figured as much. You were assuming Ruby and Weiss would be back at the room?"

"Yeah," Yang replied, scratching her head.

"So," Blake prompted, "What have you got to talk about?"

"Okay," Yang started, "Now I don't want to sound pushy, but the thought kind of crossed my mind yesterday…"

"Yes?" Blake grew slightly worried.

After a deep breath, Yang finally asked, "Will we be able to actually go out and do stuff – like date, dinner, movie type things? I mean obviously I'd behave myself and it'd just be like friends going out. I still totally understand your reasoning behind keeping this secretive. Of course this also isn't to say I'm already getting sick of us just hanging out in our team's room! I still love just hanging out with you. I'm just worried we may get bored of doing the same thing together and then eventually get bored of each other somehow and that would really fucking suck. So I don't know. This is stupid. Is this stupid? Maybe I'm stupid? I'm just really concerned that-"

'Oh it's beautiful how much she cares,' Blake thought.

Yang was abruptly silenced as Blake pecked a short kiss on her cheek. Yang immediately blushed, confusedly asking, "W-what was that for?"

"That was so you'd stop rambling," Blake said with a grin as she grabbed Yang's hands. "Look I understand your concern and I'd love for us to go out…but…"

'ughhh but nothing!' Blake thought, 'I've already asked her to keep our relationship a secret. Asking for us to never go anywhere is definitely asking for too much from her…yet that still doesn't make the idea feel any less terrifying. I'm going to be freaking out the entire time!'

Yang's words from the previous evening resonated in Blake's ear as she thought the situation through, 'No one's going to treat you or me any differently.' As she gazed up to the lilac eyes before her, she knew she couldn't deny this to Yang.

'I suppose I'll go along and share in her arguably blind, yet comforting, optimism,' Blake decided, 'but on one condition.'

Sighing, the faunus finally replied, "Okay how about this. If you put up a good act for the rest of the week and convince me we can keep this a secret, then we can go somewhere this Friday. Fair?"

Blake immediately lost her breath as the blonde crushed her in a massive hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Yang excitedly squealed. "You won't regret it! We'll have so much fucking fun! Yes! Oh, Yes! Thank you!"

"Yang," Blake squeaked, "Can't…breathe."

Yang immediately released her and stepped back, still grinning profusely, "Sorry. I'm just so excited now! I'll have to start planning!"

"And you'll have to act appropriately during class now," Blake clarified.

"Easy," Yang beamed.

Just then, Yang's scroll went off. As she took out the device and read the newest message, she chuckled.

"What is it?" Blake asked, curious.

Yang replied, "Ruby wants us to do our usual sparring with team JNPR today. We apparently need some practice before we have our routine sparring matches in Goodwitch's class tomorrow. She said you and I need to 'kiss and cuddle later and fight super-cool-like right now.'"

"Oh, our mature and wise team leader," Blake grumbled.

Yang continued laughing with Blake's response. "Well let's head to the sparring hall then," Blake muttered as she turned to walk back to the main courtyard.

Yang, still laughing, replied, "Yeah, right behind you. Let's go 'fight super-cool-like'."

…

The pair shortly arrived at the sparring hall. Despite being where Goodwitch taught her classes, the massive room was open to any hunters wishing to practice some combat during other hours of the day. It was usually quite crowded with teams both sparring and spectating, and today seemed to be no different. As Blake and Yang entered the room, they quickly spotted the rest of their team standing with team JNPR among several others already brawling around them.

"Hey, guys!" Ruby beamed as her teammates arrived, "I'm glad you made it! Are you ready to kick some butt?"

"The real question is are you ready to get _your_ butt kicked?" Nora gleefully countered. "It will be us doing the butt kicking around here! You're not going to beat us this week! Well most of us anyways…"

"…hey," Jaune muttered.

"We'll see about that!" Yang grinned, "So how are we organizing this week?"

Pyrrha stepped forward, answering, "Professor Goodwitch said we'd be having random single matches in class tomorrow, so I'd think some one-on-ones would be the most appropriate."

"B-but," Jaune muttered, "is that really the best idea? I mean…uh…"

The teams playfully laughed in response. Ruby finally replied, "Don't worry, Jaune. You've been improving a lot by sparring against me the past few days. If it makes you feel better we can just put you against Weiss. She won't be too threatening."

"Excuse me?" Weiss snapped, crossing her arms.

"That actually would work perfectly," Pyrrha noted, "We've been rotating who fights who for the past couple weeks, and Jaune's due to fight Weiss anyways."

"Oh that's right!" Ruby remembered, "Uh, do you remember who everyone else is fighting? I didn't write our rotations down…"

"Yeah, whose butt's getting kicked?" Nora exclaimed, already wielding her hammer.

Pyrrha chuckled, "I believe the next was rotation was Yang and I, Jaune and Weiss, Ruby and Ren, and Blake and Nora."

Nora hastily pointed her hammer towards Blake, demanding, "Yes! Are you ready for this?"

Blake leaned away, eyes widened, "Um yeah…sure."

"Then let's do this!" Nora beamed.

'Oh dear god,' Blake thought.

"Wait…" Ruby said as she glanced around the sparring hall, still filled with other teams already fighting, "How are we going to do this? I don't think there's enough room in here for much more chaos."

Pyrrha pointed across the hall noting, "There's still some space over there. We could just run one pair at a time like a tournament - winner by best out of four?"

"Sounds good to me," Yang agreed, "So Nora and Blake first? Does that sound good to you all?"

"You bet it does! Let's get this started! Victory to all of team JNPR! ...well to most of us anyways!"

"…thanks Nora…" Jaune mumbled.

As the teams marched across the hall, Yang nudged Blake's side, giving her a wink as she said, "Good luck! I'll be cheering you on!"

Blake smiled in response squeaking, "Thanks." She was not particularly excited to battle Nora, but such would at least be decent practice against some more energetic opponents – better to make the most of it.

Blake stood several yards in front of Nora now with everyone else standing off to the side. The faunus drew her weapon, Gambol Shroud, gripping the blade in one hand with the sturdy sheath in the other. Nora hefted up her hammer, Magnhild, grinning almost maliciously.

"Do you have our auras up on your scroll, Pyrrha?" Nora asked.

"Sure do!" Pyrrha replied.

"Then …ARE YOU READY, BLAKE?" Nora yelled.

Blake nodded in response, grinning. 'Let's see what you've got, pinky,' Blake thought.

Now madly excited, Nora slammed her hammer to the ground, igniting the grenade component of her hammer, effectively launching her far into the air. With hardly a second's notice, Blake dove to the side, avoiding a critical hammer strike whooshing only inches from her head. Nora landed far behind Blake, sliding to an eventual halt as the faunus dashed towards her.

Nora turned to counter her oncoming enemy, swiping with her hammer to keep a distance, but Blake left behind several shadow clones with her semblance as she jumped and spun over the attacks. The faunus swung her sheath as she flew over her opponent, knocking Nora in the back and forcing her to stumble forward.

Blake quickly landed and charged towards her unsteady foe, but was just barely too slow. Nora had steadied and brought her hammer back around just as Blake hastily raised her own weapon to block the strike. The impact shoved Blake to the ground where she rolled back up just as Nora's hammer echoed on the hard floor.

Blake tried to jump further away, but Nora was right on top of her, sending continuous strikes that were just barely missing their target.

Now slightly panicked, Blake conjured another shadow and dove to the side to try and escape from Nora's path of destruction. However, Nora successfully predicted the trick and managed to just barely catch Blake's torso, lighting off an explosive impact that sent the faunus flying.

Blake grunted on the impact with the ground and struggled to quickly stand back up. After looking back up towards Nora, she realized she'd dropped her sheath. Only her blade was left in her grip which would do little to block the immense power behind Nora's hammer.

As Nora charged forward again, Blake gripped the ribbons of her blade and trotted forward. Nora came in close yet again and resumed a fury of strikes in front of her. Blake tensed, as if she was about to leap over the horizontal strikes, but instead left a shadow and slid under Nora's passing attack. The shadow instantly vaporized from the strikes as Blake brought herself back up, now behind her foe, and struck Nora's legs. The hammer wielder slipped for a moment, but remained standing. Nora turned and moved in on Blake yet again as the faunus back pedaled.

Nora hefted Magnhild for another slamming attack which prompted Blake to brace herself. Blake easily flipped backwards to dodge the massive vertical arc which slammed onto the ground, so she then took the chance after landing of leaping forward, over her foe, for a hopefully decisive strike. However, Nora giggled in response.

'Oh crap, why is she…' Blake's thoughts were cut off as Nora pulled the trigger on her hammer, igniting another explosion which sent the weapon arcing backwards, directly into Blake with the back of its massive top. Nora pulled the arc of the hammer back down behind her, effectively catching and slamming Blake down with the full force of the explosion into the floor. Blake immediately felt all the air leave her lungs as her aura nearly completely dissolved.

"Hey, that's it!" Pyrrha yelled.

The students jogged over to the combatants. Yang hastily knelt by Blake's side saying with clear worry, "Hey, are you okay?"

Blake nodded as she caught her breath and sat up.

Yang sighed, "Good. Jeez that was insane. How much of her aura was left, Pyrrha?"

"About two percent."

"Heh, that was a great match, Blake!" Nora beamed, still fully energized, "Sorry if I kicked your butt a little too hard."

Blake stood up, grinning, "Not at all. Good match."

"Here," Ruby handed Blake back her sheath from the floor. "So is it my turn now?"

"Sure, Ruby," Pyrrha tapped on her scroll, loading up the next sets of aura, "Are you ready Ren?"

"You bet," Ren replied with his dual pistols In hand.

"Alright!" Ruby grinned as her Crescent Rose extended at her side. "Let's do it!"

Yang:

As their fighting area was cleared again, Ruby and Ren launched into combat. The two raised their weapons and released a fury of rounds at range. Ren eventually found his pistols to be inferior to Ruby's sniper rifle, so he leapt far in the air and brought the fight closer and more physical.

Ruby easily parried Ren's short ranged swipes and kicks with her massive scythe, but Ren stayed diligent regardless. The two continued to dance in a circle.

"Ruby has certainly improved," Pyrrha noted to the other spectators, "I know Ruby's defense isn't her strongest aspect, but she's holding up."

"That's my sister!" Yang boasted, "She's learned from the best!"

"Um, you aren't her partner who practices with her…" Weiss pointed out.

"Go Ruby!" Yang ignored.

Ren had just been knocked to the ground by a successful swipe of the scythe. He gracefully leapt back to his feet before Ruby could advance further. Ren backed away, taking more shots from his pistols. Ruby grinned, raised Crescent Rose, and began spinning the scythe around her with her semblance. As she deflected all the incoming bullets, she leapt through the air as a bladed tornado towards her opponent.

Ren slid under the blade storm, catching Ruby's legs with his own. The cloaked girl yelped and stumbled forward as she was forced out of her semblance. She tried to turn to meet Ren again, but as she did so, he caught her it the stomach with a heavy punch which was shortly followed by a high kick to the side of her head. Ruby fell to the ground.

"Hey that's the match!" Pyrrha yelled, indicating Ruby's aura had been drained.

"Hey, you okay, Ruby?" Yang yelled over.

"Yeah!" Ruby replied as Ren helped her stand up. "Man that was almost pathetically quick. I really left myself open again, didn't I?"

"Sadly yes," Ren replied, "Your attack was certainly intimidating, though. It was certainly a good fight."

"That's two matches to team JNPR!" Nora exclaimed, "Now the best you can hope for is a tie!"

"Hey, a tie's honorable. You all tied us last week," Yang noted.

"That was only because you forfeited to Jaune claiming to be 'too tired to bother fighting'," Weiss added, "That should've been a victory."

"Heh, that's not the point," Yang chuckled, rubbing the back of her head, "Well, I'm sure Ms. Schnee will bring honor to team RWBY with the first victory of the day?"

"You could at least pretend there's a chance," Jaune muttered.

"Don't worry Jaune," Nora grinned, "We already can't lose, so there's no reason for you to worry. Just do your best!"

As Pyrrha loaded up the next match, she shrugged and added, "She's right."

Jaune sighed as he pulled out his sword and shield, "Alright. Let's just go ahead with it then."

Weiss and Jaune walked out for the match. The heiress took her silver rapier, Myrtenaster, in her grip and spun the chamber several times. Jaune hesitantly raised his own weapons.

With a crack in his voice, Jaune asked, "Hey, Weiss? Could we maybe keep this dust free?"

"No," Weiss snapped without a bit of hesitation.

"B-but uh…I," Jaune looked over to the rest for assistance.

"Uh, Weiss? Perhaps such a handicap could make things a bit fairer?" Pyrrha noted.

Weiss shook her head, "How so? He's perfectly allowed to use dust as well."

"Weiss," Ruby crossed her arms, "This is all supposed to be practice. Relying a bit less on your dust and more on your physical abilities will do you good."

"Fine," Weiss rolled her eyes as she removed the dust canisters from her sword, "Happy?"

Ruby beamed, "Yep! Now go kick butt!"

"Such would be easier with my dust," Weiss grumbled.

"Thanks, Weiss!" Jaune grinned, "Are you ready, then?"

"Obviously!" Weiss snapped.

"Alright! Alright!" Jaune raised his sword and shouted, "Then let's go!"

Jaune charged forward, every step echoing across the floor. He halved the distance between him and Weiss before she finally reacted with a flick of her arm. One of her glyphs instantly conjured under the boy's feet. Without any reaction time, the glyph shot upward, sending Jaune flying past Weiss into a tumble on the ground. Weiss turned with a smirk to face her opponent taking plentiful time to stand back up.

"Hey, Weiss!" Yang yelled, "Maybe restrict your semblance also?"

"Oh come on!" the heiress snapped.

"He doesn't even know his semblance yet! Don't pretend that's fair!" Yang continued.

Weiss groaned, "Fine."

Jaune had brought himself back up, now with a clearly embarrassed smile. "Thanks again Weiss! This is good practice…I think!"

"It better be," Weiss replied, now walking casually forward, flicking her rapier around.

Jaune charged forward again, weapons forward. Once approached, his sword hastily came at a diagonal swipe toward the heiress which was passively parried by her own rapier. He tried to recover quickly and swiped again through a vertical arc. Weiss parried the attack again, following u with a step and swing to Jaune's side. He raised his shield barely in time for the attack to ricochet.

Jaune rotated towards his opponent and tried moving forward, shield first. Weiss replied with a direct thrust to the shield, hitting the iron into his face, effectively dazing him from the impact. The heiress then gracefully flipped around Jaune to his sword-wielding side where she sent a storm of rapier slashes. Jaune managed to blindly swipe away about two before the rest consecutively struck and ultimately thrust him off balance onto the ground.

"Hey, he's doing better," Yang stated.

Grinning, Pyrrha mimicked, "He's learned from the best!"

Before Jaune could fully recover, Weiss spun over him, slashing across his arm which forced him to drop his shield.

"Hey, watch it!" Jaune yelped.

"You watch it!" Weiss snapped, "A real opponent isn't going to give you all the time in the world to get up!"

With his sword now wielded in both hands, Jaune stood and tried again to land a single, powerful hit, but Weiss' evasion was proving to be simply too adept. She parried and side stepped every repeated attack. He couldn't really try much more than swiping at different angles and was starting to wear himself out. Weiss started side stepping far more than actually parrying his attacks.

With a frustrated surge of energy, Jaune yelled, jumped, and attempted another swipe. With an elegant twirl, Weiss avoided the arc and struck Myrtenaster into Jaune's side. Jaune stumbled, almost willingly leaving himself open as Weiss continued a rhythm of continuous slashes. After nearly a dozen, he finally collapsed, having both his aura and adrenaline wiped away.

"And that's the match!" Pyrrha announced.

Jaune sat up groaning as the ice queen hooked her rapier back onto her belt and walked back to the group.

"Good job, guys!" Ruby beamed, "That was an awesome match!"

"Okay, don't lie to my face," Jaune said as he lifted himself up and fiddled with his collapsible weapons.

Pyrrha placed her hand on his shoulder, "No really, that was great. You're getting better!"

Jaune grinned, "Heh, if you say so."

Grinning, Yang said, "Looks like it's down to the final fight. You ready, Pyrrha?"

Handing her scroll over to Ren, she answered, "Absolutely. Let's see how much we've improved since we last fought."

"Yeah, let's see!" Yang turned back to her team, "Wish me luck, team!"

"Good luck!" Ruby gave a thumbs-up.

"Yeah, you'll need luck against Pyrrha..." Weiss mumbled.

"Good luck," Blake added with a smile.

The two combatants separated away for the final match. Yang's bracelets expanded into her full gauntlets, Ember Celica, as Pyrrha drew her spear and shield.

"No holding back now!" Pyrrha called.

"Certainly wasn't planning on it!" Yang smirked.

With that, the battle began. Yang fired a succession of two blasts from her gauntlets as she moved in on her target who moved forward as well, consuming each of the blasts across her shield. Yang launched one more volley as she leapt to the side to flank her foe. Pyrrha ducked under the incoming bullets and swiftly met Yang's following punch with a parry by her spear. With one arm caught to the side, the blond quickly replied with a swing from her right fist, but Pyrrha hastily sidestepped the blow as she magnetized Yang's gauntlets off course. Pyrrha then bashed her shield into Yang, effectively forcing the blond off of her.

Yang back pedaled a few steps, chuckling, "Not bad at all, Pyrrha."

Grinning, the warrior leapt forward and swung her massive spear horizontally. Yang caught the strike with her gauntlet and wound back her other arm for a counter. However, Pyrrha's spear quickly retracted into its shorter form, allowing Pyrrha to block the incoming punch.

Yang backed away again and, with a valiant yell, popped off several more rounds from Ember Celica as she leapt forward. Yang kept straight on her opponent. As the shots from her gauntlets landed against Pyrrha's shield, Yang closed the gap and began furiously combo-punching her foe's defenses, each punch releasing another swarm of bullets. After an extended fury, one final punch sent Pyrrha sliding backwards. She spun her weapon around as it shifted into its ranged-rifle mode.

The two began a spectacular storm of bullets as each shot towards one another, dodging everything with masterful acrobatics. After a final shot from Pyrrha, Yang sailed over the bullet's path, propelling herself with immense speed by lighting off her gauntlets behind her. Pyrrha hastily shifted her weapon back to a spear and raised her shield.

The blond brought her fist to the shield with immense force, effectively forcing Pyrrha off balance. Yang spun with the recoil of the impact over her stumbling foe and threw another punch towards Pyrrha's side. Pyrrha awkwardly parried the attack, forcing her weapon out of her hand. As the weapon clattered to the ground, Yang landed and quickly resumed a blur punches.

After three blows, Pyrrha's shield was knocked to the side. Yang then landed a solid punch to Pyrrha's ribs. Pyrrha winced, but before Yang could try to continue the combo, Pyrrha yelled and activated a burst from her semblance. Yang suddenly felt her gauntlets pulling her away as she stumbled backwards in a 'Y' pose. Pyrrha hastily magnetized her spear back to her hands and leapt towards the unsteady Yang. The warrior unleashed a massive upper-cutting swipe with her spear which connected with Yang's gut with a solid thud. The Blonde was forced into the air by the strike where Pyrrha then jumped and followed up with another massive strike meeting the side of Yang's head. Yang's body began to spin from the impact before she collided with the hard ground.

Pyrrha landed and spun around her spear as her foe started to bring herself up.

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked.

Yang brought her head back up, smiling. Her eyes were now burning a blood red – burning almost _for_ blood. Her semblance had been activated with full power.

"You're asking the wrong person that question!" Yang called as she stood up and reloaded Ember Celica.

Pyrrha grinned and pointed her spear to the other combatant, "Let's keep going then!"

"Gladly!" Yang yelled as she shot several rounds behind her to propel a powerful charge forward.

Pyrrha braced her shield as more shots collided against it, but no punch followed. Once in range, Yang instead flipped over her foe, sending a flanking round from her gauntlets from above. Pyrrha dove forward to avoid the attack and was quickly met by an assaulting Yang once she recovered.

Each punch Yang threw thudded against Pyrrha's spear or shield. Yang finally just grabbed the handle of Pyrrha's spear and jerked it to the side, surprisingly tearing the weapon from her hands. As the spear clattered to the floor, Pyrrha bashed her shield forward, connecting directly into Yang's jaw. Yang took it without even flinching and with a solid wind up, thrust another punch towards Pyrrha which was narrowly avoided.

Pyrrha jumped back and, with the power of her semblance, fired her shield like a disk. Yang couldn't quite evade it, so the shield struck her in the arm, distracting her momentarily. With that, Pyrrha leapt over to her spear on the ground and hefted it with both hands.

Yang was quickly on top of her yet again, each attack just as powerful and difficult to block as the last. Pyrrha sidestepped and parried every strike, but Yang kept advancing, forcing her to pack pedal. Pyrrha began to purposely back pedal faster, forcing Yang to almost run after her. Yang finally leapt forward to try and land another strike, but Pyrrha hastily stepped to the side and tripped the brawler. As Yang stumbled, Pyrrha wound up and struck her spear across Yang's back, forcing her to tumble the ground.

"That's it! Your aura's down!" Ren called.

"Oh c'mon," Yang chuckled. She sat up, blinking her eyes back to their usual shade of lilac.

Pyrrha stood over her, offering her a hand to help her up. Yang took it and stood back up, sighing, "Great match Pyrrha. I didn't expect anything less."

Pyrrha nodded, "Indeed it was. You've certainly been improving your strikes."

"Hey, what can I say?" Yang grinned.

"That you lost?" Weiss suggested.

"Weiss!" Ruby grumbled.

Delightfully, Nora laughed, "That's right! She did lose! That means team JNPR has won our tournament! We're the winners! Not even Jaune could hold us back! We did it! Ah ha ha ha ha!" Nora started spinning around, clearly overjoyed.

"Right…well that was good practice…I think?" Blake

"Definitely!" Ruby beamed.

"Indeed," Pyrrha agreed, "We should all be well prepared for a fight in class tomorrow."

"Yeah…totally…" Jaune mumbled.

"I agree," Yang smiled as she patted Blake on the back, "now I'd suggest we all relax. I'm pretty sure our auras could use some regenerating."

"My aura is just fine actually," Weiss sneered, "Besides, I've got something to do."

'You mean Neptune?' Yang thought.

"I'll meet you guys later," Weiss promised as she turned and stepped away.

"Later, Weiss!" Ruby called, "So do the rest of you want to come over and hang out? We could break into some videogames?"

"That sounds splendid!" Pyrrha replied, "but unfortunately we have quite a deal of homework to work on. Our team has been procrastinating a great deal." She struggled, but ultimately failed to gaze over to Jaune and Nora.

"Alright then," Ruby nodded, "Guess we'll see you guys in class tomorrow!"

Pyrrha smiled, "Yep! We'll be seeing you!"

* * *

**So there we go, I've tried my hand at writing combat...lots of combat. I apologize if it grew repetitive or boring to read, or if you were against combat in this story in general since it's certainly more emotionally centered - I can guarantee this won't happen too frequently and certainly never again to this scale. However, I wanted to challenge myself a bit and show life getting back to normal for team RWBY after the whole Yang - Blake disaster. That being said, that's part of why this took so long to write...I was not eager to write combat. So I hope you'll understand ^_^' (and I hope the larger word count makes up for it ...)**

**Although I did introduce the cute little agreement Yang and Blake have made, oh will the next chapter be fun...well most of it will be fun...oh snap that foreshadowing though. :O**

**Also team RWBY got their butts kicked. I thought team JNPR could use some love after what they've been through and it would a bit less expected (and less expected = good). I seriously hope I did the Yang vs Pyrrha fight justice. After Volume 3 happened, I really wanted to show Pyrrha being awesome.**

**In other news this now has 159 followers...the army of people to disappoint only grows more intimidating...oh dear me. Well I certainly hope you're enjoying it. Thanks to everyone that's left reviews - it really means a lot. Do comment if you have input on what I'm doing / ways to improve - I'd LOVE to hear it...especially on that combat anarchy I just created ^_^'**

**That's about it, so I'll see you next time.**


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